On Wed, 13 Jul 94 19:11:16 CDT Charles E. Vaughan said:
>>On Fri, 8 Jul 94 09:35:02 CDT Jerry Huff said:
>>>The VW mechanic I take by Golf and Vanagon to strongly recommends repacking
>>>all CV joints every 30,000 miles, especially for the Vanagon.  He claims the
>
>However, at $300 to repack at the dealer that works out to 1 cent per mile
>for a single maintenance item.  Compare to 5.5 cents per mile for gas (@
>$1.10/gal. and 20 mpg) and 0.33 cents per mile for oil (@ $1.20/qt and $4.00
>for filter at 3000 mi. interval).  I find that outrageous.  I replaced 2 and
>repacked 2 at 50,000 mi. and haven't done anything since (now 120,000 mi.).
>It's more cost effective to let them fail.

true enough. but if you do the cleaning and repacking yourself every 30,000
miles, the cost works out to maybe $30 (or about 0.1 cents per mile), not
counting your own time.

ANYTHING you let the dealer do is outrageously priced, but if you can't do
it yourself, you have little choice.  anything you CAN do yourself saves
money in the long run (as long as you don't screw it up somehow). and cv-
joints are definitely something you can do yourself. messy? very. but it
takes only a few good tools and some grease to do it.

wow! $300 to repack. well, they told me it would be $480 in parts to replace
all four joints, and probably $200 in labor (hey! i'm old. i'm entitled to
think about letting other people get dirty instead of me!) ... so for $680
for 75,000 miles, that's still 0.9 cents per mile. hmmm. just about the same
cost as letting them do the repacking every 30,000 miles. but if i'll get off
my lazy butt and get out there and clean and regrease the ones i have, i
might get another 50-75,000 miles out of these, before i have to spend the
$480 in parts.

you pays your money and you takes your chances.

joel