Sorry, I thought everyone here knew Graham's shop; esp in So Cal. Email coming your way. Sorry Don, but if you had these boots too, I would not have posted the other source here. Any others interested, please email me.

Forgive me, but who is this Graham you speak of and will he sell us all of the other boots, gators, grommets, seals and o-rings that are turning to dust before our very eyes?

It's all moot; Graham has urethane CV boots that should last till you die.

I think that I've recently made the mistake of throwing away still good but used rubber products because they were years old. Now I'm seeing and experiencing what is on the market currently. Oh well.

I might consider using them. The rubber available today seems to last a year or two, often less. I'll bet your 60 year old boots will last longer than new ones.

I have a couple of axles here with what im sure are original outer cv boots .
They are from a 68 car! Not a crack in them !
Of course, i wouldnt fit them....but todays rubber would disintegrate by just sitiing for that long.?

Less than 5 yrs old. 

Shouldn't post links to our host's competitors here.

Thats good to know. Is there a link?

I was just looking at my rear side windows...you know the ones that I replaced the original rubber with new ones just in case (ok you didnt know that but play along), well BOTH are coming apart!! This is getting old, quick

I just found out that Graham solved the crap CV boot problem, by having them manufactured from P-Urethane. He has replicas of the long-time discontinued Cooper-S boots too. Bought a couple sets to have when I need them.....probably soon.

It sure is. 

So I was under my car last night and noticed that one of my outer axle boots has a split along one rib. I mean, honestly! They maybe 2 years old. In fact, I am going to look now t see when ordered because this is getting ridiculous. 

The axle boots I bought from Argentina for my Dauphine broke apart while being pushed around the body shop, before I ever drove the car.

This has been driving me NUTS over the last few years. Its terrible. I try and buy the best parts I can find, spend good money, only to have them fail. Years ago, while I had my SPi Cooper apart due to an accident, I decided it would be a good time to replace some original rubber parts. One of which was the upper rad hose. Bought one from a Spares and installed. Took longer then I thought to get the car back on the road but that pipe ended up splitting down the middle, about 4 hours from home!! It needed up nearly destroying my motor due to the strange place Rover put the coolant temp sensor. I replaced with silicone and still have the original in a box...which I bet would STILL be fine even after over 20 years (not that I want to test that). Unreal. They just aren't making it like they used to.

What annoys me is that this is a known problem, its all over the other classic mini forums, but the sellers are unable to dictate quality to the part manufacturer.  Why aren't the rubber parts on new cars falling apart?

rosebud..  yea.. I have seen this.. as lots of the mini parts are made in INDIA now..  even worse then China.. later bc

You better check your Knuckle boots.

Just went through this on my car, CV boots <5yrs old dried up and split. Steering rack boots looked like rubber discs, no accordion left. 

It's really annoying spending an hour or two on my back under the car replacing rubber seals, boots, etc. only to have them fall apart in an astonishingly short period of time. It's not like these are expensive items, but their fitment often requires a great deal of time and effort. How can a manufacturer honestly sell this crap knowing it's going to crumble in under a year? Too bad retailers can't put pressure on the manufacturers to improve the quality of their rubber.