Hello David, pick your poison on this one. I elected to replace the boots on mine as my axles are original German believe or not so I went the boot route. If you buy the whole axle complete with joints it will take less time as your just releasing the axle as an assembly and swapping it out.
If you order axles or just the boot kits also order a couple of the bolts for the CV joints as they can strip and removal involves a pair a vice grips and you'll need a replacement bolt, the correct hex drive bit is a must if you don't have one on hand.
I also tape the joint at the joint seam to keep it from flopping around and prevent the joint from locking up or spitting a ball out. (see pic). The rest is just putting the assembly on the bench with plenty of shop towels to clean out the grease so that you can access the snap ring that holds the joint to the axle whereas only one comes off to replace both boots at the same time.
If you go the whole axle route just by the best you can get as Ive heard bad reviews about some of the Empi units.
Michael
