2014 (yes) International Ranger CV joint maintenance

[AlanH]

Greetings,
I live in Nicaragua and have an "International" Ranger (2014, 70K kilometers, 4x4, 3.2L, 6-speed, 4 door) that took over from my 98 Ranger (still truckin) that I brought from Canada.

I would appreciate your thoughts about 2 maintenance items. While under warranty (expired years ago) the dealership required a checkup about every 5K kilometers and I have kept that up post warranty (more or less). With rising labor and parts costs (but no major fixes) that is getting a bit expensive on a Canadian pension. Is every 5K reasonable? Also, they are nowsaying that the CV joints be re-greased as a standard procedure (given the mileage; 70K kilometers). The boots are intact and clean —no sign of leaks—and there are no noises (clicks nor anything else). They are also charging $600. Should they be re-greased given the mileage and if so is that price reasonable? Thanks for your thoughts. Cheers. Alan

 

[sgtsandman]

What is all included in a 5,000 km (3,000 mile) check up?

If it is an oil change, brake inspection, and so on, that is way too often. I tend to do my oil changes and inspections more often than most. Every 6 months, regardless of mileage. If you are looking for a distance interval, 8,000 km (5,000 miles) might be a good number but I wouldn't go more than 12,000 km (7,500 miles).

As far as regreasing the CV joints, those are usually an item that is just left alone until there is a problem. How much do they cost to replace if they go bad there and how difficult is it to get replacements? The answer to both of those questions will dictate whether the cost of regreasing is reasonable or not.

The problem is we don't have that engine here and didn't get a variation of that truck until 2019 after the previous small truck was discontinued in the US. So, there may be some critical information we are missing.

 

[JoshT]

I'll agree with Sgtsandman on maintenance interval.

I wouldn't touch the CV axles until they have an issue. As noted we didn't get that version of the Ranger until 2019, so not a whole lot of history to gone on for failures with that particular model. There are a lot of vehicles beyond just the Ranger that use CV axles. Not just in axles either, lot of drive shafts have CV joints too. As long as the boots remain intact and not abused, they tend to last 100s of thousands of miles before failure without being touched. Manufacturer may have recommended a service, but I can about guarantee that it wasn't done on the majority of them.

Personal experience, my dad's 2002 Ranger still has the stock front CV axles and is in the 150k+ mile (240k+ km) range. The 2000 Explorer I bought has 180k miles(~ 290k km) and still had the stock front driveshaft that uses a CV joint. The boot was still intact until I tore it during removal. Joint was still good so I could have cleaned and reused, but couldn't find the boot separate from the JV joint. The CV boots in my 99 Ranger are not a good example since they don't turn all the time, but at almost 210k miles (338k km) and 25 years the boots were still in good shape when I removed them last week.

IMO, if you develop a boot tear, clean the joint, add new grease, and install a new boot (or replace whole axle). If the joint is making weird noises or binding, inspect and repair/replace as necessary. Until then, I'd leave it alone until it causes a problem. Opening the joint to do unnecessary maintenance could cause more problems than it fixes. Between potential contamination, improper assemble, inferior parts and supplies, it could cause them to fail faster.