I have owned my 1994 850 for 4 years and seem to always be puting money into it. I either have a ripoff indy or a bad car. 24 months ago my indy said I needed a right axle replaced. (said the cv boot was ripped also) The other day I had my car in for service and he said that the right axle(again) and right ball joint needs replaced . Is this possible? He said the boot is ripped again. I decided to take it to another indy who said that I needed both ball joints and control arms.(500 bucks) He said they come together? He said the axle was fine but the cv boot needed repacked and replaced. (200 bucks) What goes? Is all this possible. The car had 113000 miles on it.

Based on personal experience and some recent posts, it seems that a ripped CV boot is purely a case of bad luck, rather than poor manufacturing or maintenance. The recommendation to replace the shaft sounds like it must be more cautionary (and/or greedy) than absolutely necessary, since you can't tell if there's a problem with the CV joint unless it's making a noise (or you pull it apart and inspect it). So, unless it is,in fact, making noise, I would go with the second opinion (replace boot, repack joint with grease). The procedure would require the mechanic (if he's a good one) to take the joint apart and clean it, so if he notices a problem while he has the joint apart, then you can decide to replace it.

Where the heck are you driving this car???!!! I have 178,000 on my 1995 850 and not nearly the issues you are talking about. Ball joints should last at LEAST 50K miles