Ram,

Can you also get them to quote us for just the CV boots?

Ascinder,

AFAIK LittleBeast and Marlin are the only ones who have experienced a catastrophic failure. Everyone else has just done the replacement due to torn boots and/or clicking noise. My guess is that the typical failure sequence is as follows:

1. torn boot allowing lubricants to escape and abrasives to enter the CV joint.

2. the inner (star) and outer (green cup) races become worn causing a divet that the balls will jump in and out of during articulation - clicking sound.

3. those divets become so pronounced that the balls actually bind causing the inner race to fracture

4. once the inner race fractures, the longitudinal slip will probably be adequate that it pops the retaining clip loose and the whole assembly falls out.

5. as soon as one end breaks free, the other CV will 'explode' as well.

This is all conjecture on my part of course since I've never actually been inside a CV when it fails.