My 2014 CX-5 has a crack in the front suspension dust boot. The car also has 130k mi on it. The dealer quoted me something like $400 to replace them, which is almost all labor.
I read the previous two threads on this topic:
- https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/index.php?threads/boot-strut-need-to-be-replace.123840869/
- https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/index.php?threads/front-supension-dust-boot-broken.123829545/
But in both of those cases, the cars were pretty new and possibly covered under warranty. However, my car has 130k miles and the front shocks are the originals. I'm tempted to delay the repair until one of the front shocks (or some other suspension component) actually starts having problems that require a repair, and then replace the newly problematic part plus old worn boots at the same time. Otherwise I'm worried that I might do the $400 repair to replace the $8 boots now, only to find out in another 10k or 20k miles that the old shock has begun to fail anyway due to age and I have to shell out another $400 for labor. And given that I'm driving on Michigan's bad roads, I'm surprised the original shocks have lasted this long. (I already had to replace the rears at around 60k.)
I know one solution is to replace the boot because it needs it and do the shock at the same time preemptively, but I don't see an advantage to doing this rather than just waiting. Unless, that is, it will be hard to notice the shock going bad, it could fail catastrophically, or waiting could somehow damage some other component.
I read the previous two threads on this topic:
- https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/index.php?threads/boot-strut-need-to-be-replace.123840869/
- https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/index.php?threads/front-supension-dust-boot-broken.123829545/
But in both of those cases, the cars were pretty new and possibly covered under warranty. However, my car has 130k miles and the front shocks are the originals. I'm tempted to delay the repair until one of the front shocks (or some other suspension component) actually starts having problems that require a repair, and then replace the newly problematic part plus old worn boots at the same time. Otherwise I'm worried that I might do the $400 repair to replace the $8 boots now, only to find out in another 10k or 20k miles that the old shock has begun to fail anyway due to age and I have to shell out another $400 for labor. And given that I'm driving on Michigan's bad roads, I'm surprised the original shocks have lasted this long. (I already had to replace the rears at around 60k.)
I know one solution is to replace the boot because it needs it and do the shock at the same time preemptively, but I don't see an advantage to doing this rather than just waiting. Unless, that is, it will be hard to notice the shock going bad, it could fail catastrophically, or waiting could somehow damage some other component.