Worn out parts

I hate when things wear out.  Every mechanical thing that moves will wear out eventually.  For me, this week, it is my constant velocity (cv) joints on my car.  It is making a horrendous popping noise when I turn.  So now I have to spend the $100 to buy the parts, and a Saturday replacing them. 

For most vehicles or power sports there are things that just don't last.  Given, with synthetic materials, and tighter manufacturing tolerances things are lasting a lot longer.  But even with the best material and tightest tolerance, the item will eventually give up the ghost.

For a snowmobile you can buy carbon fiber drive belts now.  They last a long time, and are probably lighter than the stock rubber.  They cost a pretty penny too.  But even they ware out eventually. 

So what can be done?  Not much outside of regular maintenance.  For my CV axles I am sure that the rubber boots failed long before the CV axle failed.  When the boot fails dirt, grim, and water gets in there and destroys it. So if I was on top of things I would have changed the boots for $8 instead of having to change the axle for $100.  But honestly who is under their car looking at things like this enough to catch the problem?  If you are I commend your effort. 

For power sports such as snowmobiling there are things to check every year.  There are items that need to be lubed and greased.  Stay on top of these things and your machine will last a lot longer.  When I bought my snowmobile it only had 730 miles on it.  I checked the chain case oil and it was dirty and low.  Imagine if I had run it while being low.  I could have burned up my chain and ended up needing to dump a bunch of money into the sled for repairs. 

Bottom line is this... DON'T GET LAZY ABOUT UPKEEP OR YOU WILL PAY FOR IT IN THE LONG RUN.

This isn't my cv joint, but it illustrates the bad rubber boot.

Thanks for reading,
DPS