Subaru Legacy: Front and Rear CV Joint Boot Cracking and Grease Loss

The constant velocity (CV) joint boots on the BP/BL Legacy are rubber bellows that retain grease within the CV joint and exclude road contamination. The rubber compounds used degrade with age, ozone exposure, and heat from the exhaust on inner boots, causing them to crack and split. Once the boot is breached, grease is expelled centrifugally and replaced by water and road grit, which rapidly abrades the CV joint ball races and cage, leading to joint failure. On AWD Legacy models this affects all four corners of the drivetrain.

• Grease flung onto the inside of the wheel arch liner or onto suspension components
• Clicking or knocking sound from the front wheels during tight slow-speed turns indicating CV joint wear after grease loss
• Visible cracking, tearing, or collapsed rubber on the CV boot surface
• Vibration through the steering wheel or floorboard at speed indicating an unbalanced or damaged CV joint

Inspect all CV boot surfaces for cracking, splitting, or collapse; look for grease flung onto surrounding suspension components or inside the wheel arch; rotate the driveshaft slowly by hand and check for grease tracks; on the inner boots check the area near the differential output for grease streaking; listen for clicking from front CV joints during tight-radius turns as a sign of advanced joint wear following boot failure.

Parts involved: CV joint and boot.

$200 to $600 at New Zealand independent workshop rates. That is for this job on its own, not for the car.

An estimate, in NZD, for the repair as normally carried out. What a specific car costs depends on which part has failed and what it damaged on the way — treat this as the floor for a negotiation, not a quote.

• “Have the CV boots been inspected recently, and have any been replaced?”
• “Is there any clicking sound when turning at low speed?”
• “Has the vehicle had a WoF issued recently, and did it note any CV boot condition?”

The failure described above is documented in published sources — owner forums, technical service bulletins, recall notices and workshop write-ups — held in our fault database. The inspection instructions and the cost estimate are KickTyres’ own interpretation of them, and it is a starting point for an inspection rather than a manufacturer statement.