Toyota Not Covering Blown CV Boot

On June 25th I drove to get groceries from my apartment a thirty mile round trip. During this time the truck never left the pavement and has not been off road in roughly 4,000 miles. I got back from the grocery store only to find my passenger side CV Boot destroyed. Called South Dade Toyota who said yes thats covered bring on in. Fast forward to July 2nd I had the truck towed using Toyota roadside assistance to the dealership who after twiddling their thumbs for and hour and a half finally told me that they would not cover it under warranty because apparently the damage was caused by and outside force and that there was obvious damage to the axel itself, the tie rod ends and the clips that hold the cv boot on were missing but after looking under the truck all of that was found to be a lie. See Below photos.

I am only writing this for for future reference to other Tacoma owners and for suggestions on how to handle this. Currently I have a case file against Toyota to warranty this repair.

Statistics:
Truck Mileage - 12413
Cost of Part & Labor - $289.95
Cost of New Axel - $438.76
No Lift
No Modifications to Drivetrain

 

Sorry OP. Staying tuned!

 

Ack, it does look like something got in there and tore up the boot.

 

That is ridiculous, especially since Toyota will reimburse the dealer for the cost. I hate NJ, but my local dealer is a no questions asked warranty provider. They replaced the faded tailgate handle on my 2015 without hesitating. My 2011 had a 3'' lift and my passenger side dif seal started to leak, replaced with a loaner car no questions asked. I would try a different dealer if you can or call big Toyota, no reason this shouldn't be covered.

 

Same thing happened to our T4R a couple of weeks ago, wife hit something on the highway and didn't realize anything was damaged... But OP did you already pay those prices for the parts and service !? A brand new complete CV is only $85 at any autoparts store and you can get a remanufactured one for $65 and it is not hard to swap out yourself.

 

Larger than stock tires? Just wondering their justification for denial.

 

No I did not pay those prices, that is what the dealer quoted me, of course prices subject to change.

 

Nope replaced dun flops with general grabber at2's same size LT245 75 16's

 

Ok , I re-read it. They are claiming something has hit causing the damage.

 

Wow.... My boots just blew too but they don't look that bad. Oh and I have 187K miles on them

 

Cool, glad to hear it. You should be able to get a new CV for around $60 -$80 and only pay 2-3 hrs labor to get it done if you can't do it yourself at home. I've replaced one three times now and I've got it down to just a couple hours from start to finish.

 

Case of CV boot rats. Sucks. Probably something in the road.

 

No idea why but inexpensive aftermarket OEM CVs don't seem to hold up. Its one of the seemingly few times when an over priced OEM part is demonstrably better than the alternative. Hopefully somebody can steer the OP to a good quality non-OEM part though. They must be out there.

 

Im currently looking through junkyards for good quality used oem axle.

 

I've had 2 aftermarket CV's on my truck for 40,000 miles with no issues and no boot problems. The only thing I have noticed is that you need to paint them yourself or they rust but that's a $5 can of paint vs an extra $350.00 for an OE CV...

 

So help the OP out with a part number, manufacturer, or at least a vendor. Sounds like maybe you found a winner.

 

Nothing fancy no secret squirrel part number just O'Reilly auto parts OE replacement

 

All you needed was a boot kit. Shame they got you for an entire axle.

Oh and the non oem autozone special CV axles are garbage.


Oem boot kit is ~$50 and comes with everything needed to repair that axle which I hope you at least kept.


Zoom in for part # off the top bag.

 

Not trying to be a dick here, but why did you drive it for a week with a destroyed CV Boot, Dirt obviously got inside and wiped out the joint bearings. Looking at the pictures some object has destroyed that boot. I have never seen one destroyed in that way from normal use.

You must have hit some road debris on the way to or from the store. What made you look under the truck when you returned from the store? Something must have prompted you to have a peep under there?

Seems like we aren't getting the full story here. I smell fish.

 

What year is your truck?