Am I screwed? Need opinion

Ye

 

I bought my 2016 Tacoma used and had this exact same thing happen. If you do not hear any grinding or clicking when driving and turning, then your CV axles may still be good. You could even put a little grease in there until you can repair them. Mine were still in good shape, so I ordered new boots from eBay (Toyota OEM only) and replaced them myself. The cause, as people have stated, was that it was lifted an a diff drop kit was not installed. I installed that and replaced the boots and was out about $100.

 

If you replace the CVs it's a great time to do the ECGS bushing, if you haven't already as part of the lift.

Whether or not you had an issues that will head it off at the pass moving forward.

 

Hahahha yea right

 

The good thing is that you are ok and nothing terrible happened while driving at 80mph on the highway ! Lifting taco or any truck come with a price (high maintenance $$) as parts wear faster and trips to the mech shop is more often then having your truck oem.. If you keep the lift keep an eye on everything down there ! EVERYTHING

 

As people have already said, you can drive it but take it easy and don't engage 4wd.

I was wearing the boot thin myself and decided to replace the boots and do the slide mod. It took about 3 days but I was taking my time and running to get tools/parts as the job went on. If you can't wait to source parts and do the work, I would buy a pair of cheap Napa CVs and rebuild these at your leisure with some high angle boots or the slide mod. After you replace them then you'll have a pair of spare CVs.

 

I heard a mechanic say if it's a blown boot...keep driving (he drove for 4 years with a boot blown).

Then hed say if it blown and clicking on turns, it'll still function, but when it clicks non stop straight or turn....it's time to replace.

My dad's old Lexus started clicking, yet he still drove it. Only after it was clicking while coasting straight it lasted another week before he replaced it.

 

You can drive the truck with torn boots and grease slinging around. But I would take a good look at your front suspension and steering. Your comment "I didn’t hear any grinding but the steering wheel “felt a little loose” on the drive to work which made me do a 360 on the truck." concerns me. Torn boots will not affect your steering until the CV joints fail. You may have something else going on.

 

What’s a sign of cv joints failing? Clicking noise etc? I already called my local mechanic shop to order me new axles. Just trying to get home safely and drop off my truck to the shop.

 

Clicking or clacking, especially when turning.

 

What he said

 

It's pretty easy to get replace the CV axles or put new boots on assuming there hasn't be damage to the CV axles from debris or wear from lack of lubrication. But to address the root cause, either go with less lift or install the differential spacers. It's all good, lesson learned.

 

I’ll see if I can hear those noises at my work parking lot. My big concern is driving home on the freeway and the axle popping/or coming out of the “socket”

 

Overheating and seizing would be my concern

 

I installed the OME carrier drop kit. Reading through the forums people say a diff drop kit will cause more harm than good to our trucks?

 

F*ck

 

It's a joint that requires constant grease. Not knowing how long it's been like that and how much lubrication is left.

 

I don't understand why people are making such a big deal about driving on the freeway or on the street with torn CV boots.

The CV axles serve no purpose when the truck is in 2wd. The wheels aren't held to the truck via the CVs, if your CV axle suddenly disappeared for some reason the wheel isn't going to fall off.

A torn boot isn't going to make the CV "pop out" of the diff, the only bad thing that can come from a torn boot is the CV failing and that'll only be apparent if you put it in 4wd.


Keep it in 2wd and you can drive with blown out boots for the next 10 years and never know the difference, minus the greasy mess.

Not that its recommended to do that but you'd be surprised how many people do. Point is, a bad CV is not a catastrophe waiting to happen like a bad wheel bearing or bad ball joint could be.

 

Dealership wont help you with this one.... That suspension will void the replacement of those CVs.

 

What?!?! The grease on there is to keep the knuckles lubed during rotation of the axles. The fucking things still spin even not in 4wd, it's just freely spinning and not being powered by the gearbox. If those seize it cause catastrophic failure of the other parts of the drive train, also it will build up a lot of heat without the grease.