CV Boot 80q

[Tom Nas]

Huw Powell <human747 at attbi.com> wrote:

>while I think they'd be good to get the car somewhere that the proper
>ring can be clamped on, I would worry a tiny bit about the fact that
>they never quite close with pressure on the full 360 degrees - there's a
>small gap at the "tie up" point, grease could escape, grit could get in
>- maybe.

On my '87 80, the clamp came off when we took things apart to change the
front struts. We didn't have the proper tool to refit it and the clamp was
pretty bent anyway.  We used a tie wrap to seal the boot.
That was about a year ago, and since then the inside of the wheel seems to
be dirty with some unknown substance. It's a light coating, doesn't seem to
be there on the other front wheel. We tried to fit a new VAG clamp once,
but it kept hitting something on the hub (I think, it's been a while since
I was in there) and it got mangled again. On went another tie wrap.
Recently, another issue came up on that side- hub bolt worked itself loose
and thrashed the wheel bearing. Since we're going in there maybe tomorrow
night but certainly within the next week, I'll see what the dirt in the
wheel is and if it's related to the boot not sealing properly.

I suspect that you're right, and would prefer to refit the original clamp.
I'm not a believer in the use of tie wraps as a universal fix, though they
worked fine on the seat foam replacement- but that's another story altogether.

Regards, Tom

PS On a related subject- we discovered recently that there's some slack on
the top strut mount. The struts were replaced less than a year ago with
originals, the strut bearings were replaced with blue urq items. Is there a
fitment problem with this combo, as far as anyone knows? Anything else
could cause this problem? When you grab the front wheel with both hands and
use a little force, you can move the strut around by a couple of mm. No
visible tie rod slack or other issues, it's clearly something at the top.