C/V joint - best lube and boots?

[hiram6]

I need to replace a torn boot on the driver's side of my Westy. What's bugging me is that I DID replace these boots, along with new CVs less than 10K ago. I bought new joints, boots and lube from one of the respected vendors about 16 months ago, since then two of the boots have failed!

So, what am I doing wrong? Or did I just get a bad batch of rubber boots? The CVs were Lobro brand, but the boots have no identifying marks on them. Both boots that have failed have split in the valley of the first accordian fold closest to the joint. First fail was the inner joint on the passenger side, now it's the outer joint on the driver's side.

I'll be pulling the joint and disassembling to inspect this weekend. I am getting a knocking sound on left turns, but I hope it's just due to being low on grease, and not permanent damage to the joint.

So who's got the best quality boots out there? I'm getting a little "too good" at the C/V joint mamba. I'd rather not be doing this every 10K miles!!
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1985 Westy, 1.9L automatic (Daisy)
1996 Mazda Miata
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited

You can't lie around on the beach and drink rum all day.................unless you start first thing in the morning.

[MarkWard]

Hello, I just redid my CV's while I was changing transmissions. I replaced one joint and all new Lobro boots. I think they are just cheap and do fail sooner than later. One axle had some heavy duty boots. No markings. I have no idea where they came from because they were on the vanagon when I got it. Maybe from the off road racing market. I use Redline CV2 grease in my cv joints. I also leave the inner clips off of the boots. I figure this allows for expansion and movement. I will watch this thread.
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[tclark]

Yup as far as I am concerned I have dealt with this same junk boot issue way too many times
here
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=243777&highlight=boots
& here
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=202052&start=20

I now have the empi baja boots on the outer's & the rockford boots on the inners
every 1 lobro, china junk I have used has failed

same fail case every time at the compression fitting between the boot & the plate

both the rock ford & the baja allow you to replace the band unlike the compression fitting
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89 Westy with TDI AHU 1.9 manual lots of mods
85 GL 1.9, auto (for sold)

[whafalia]

I recently had a boot pull out of its compression fitting, less than 5k miles. I was able to slip it back in and peen it back in place with a big blunt chisel. I don't remember how I backed it up for the pounding, I think it involved a big socket. So far so good.