Am I screwed? Need opinion

You can drive on busted CV boots all day, worst thing its going to do is make a greasy mess. Those CVs should be replaced now anyway, and your front lift lowered to 2.5" max on a 4wd.

 

Yeah. I will definitely decrease the preload this time.

 

The angle on your axles is huge,no wonder they gave way.

 

Just drive it. I ran mine for 225000 miles. It never broke.

 

OP- Don't drive it - get it fixed. You probably already spun out a lot of the grease. Its the difference between replacing just the boots vs replacing the axles because you drove it with dry joints.

 

Yup. Lesson learned. Gotta crank down on the Kings.

 

Then others are right though, angle is too much for OEM boots. There are some other threads here explaining this...

 

just get new CV axles.. they're like $60 on rockauto.. you'll be fine as long as you're not driving through mud holes for the time being.. eventually the grease will all burn up/sling out of the joint, and they will start to click especially while turning/extending (droop) suspension.. they should be replaced sooner than later. I recommend a diff drop (spacers, and longer bolts)

 

I know the right thing to is to lower my angles. Would getting aftermarket boots be a better deal or just purchase oem?

 

Read this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cv-axles-replacement.607849/

 

How about lower the lift to 2.5 inch. Diff drop I read on here does more harm than good on 3rd gens.

 

They will be getting replaced next week for sure. Looks like a lot of grease came out and it’s all over the LCAs. My issue is that I’m currently at work and need to drive home which is an hour away. Trying to decide if it’s ok for now to drive and take it to my local mechanic.

 

Thanks!

 

Drive it home, park it, buy boot kit, fix, lower preload while it's jacked up changing the CV boots. The angle is what caused this in short order, and it probably rides really bad with little down travel as it sits(CV angles and your UCA uniball misalignment spacer being basically maxed out tells me this thing is lifted to the point of basically being at full droop perpetually). It'll drive better guaranteed once the lift is decreased

I've driven probably a 1000+ miles with a cracked boot. Just dont run it dry of grease completely, and don't drive in rain, snow, sand, etc. Clean roads only otherwise the CVs will be toast. And don't replace your factory CV axles with cheap parts store axles, they'll fail even sooner.

 

You have AAA ? A co worker maybe?

 

If you decide to DIY a CV boot replacement:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-rebooting-a-tacoma-cv-axle.604695/

 

And this is why I dont mess around with lifts.

 

Awesome thank you. That’s what my local mechanic pretty much told me. Stay on dry roads and stay away from dirt, etc. gotta take it next week.

 

Thank you

 

Haha