Grease all over the wheel well

[GreeCguy]

So I'm having and enjoyable afternoon changing the oil in my '95 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Lay out the cardboard, slide under the car, pull the drain plug and watch as quarts of black oil drain into my nice clean drain pan. I roll on my back and happen to look up into the wheel well and suspension on the drivers side of the car - that's when I see it - brown grease is everywhere - coating the wheel well, the suspension - everything. I grab my blue paper towels and start wiping. It appears the grease has come from the inner CV axle. My guess is that somewhere on the boot there must be a hole or a split and over time, the grease has been "flung" out. Anyone ever had this happen? Other than removing the axle, is there a cheap and easy way to fix this?

Thoughts, opinions, ideas.

 

[Chris142]

Happens all the time.

 

[SLCraig]

Common.
If it's not too late you can just re-lube the CV and re-boot it.

If it's not clicking or doing anything unusual I would say it's not too late.

 

[NMBurb02]

Could be that the boot slipped off the end of the CV joint. Happened to the GP a couple months back but I caught it before the joint was damaged and my mechanic slipped it back on and re-clamped it. However, it wasn't a permanent fix and while poking around a few days ago I found another spray of grease inside the wheel well and engine bay and will be taking it in on Tuesday to have it reclamped or have the half axle replaced (depending on whether it slipped off or the boot it now torn).

 

[Falken]

If you cut off the boot, clean it well with brown paper towel, then spray the Dickens out of it with chlorinated brake cleaner...

You can have a "Universal" CV boot put on after putting on a bunch of new grease.

You can really inspect the joint after you cleaned it with brake cleaner. So if it looks so-so you should be fine.

They even have a special spreader tool at some places, makes for a fast job.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accesso...ier=594793_0_0_

 

[NHGUY]

I had an outer joint boot slide off the large end once,made a mess everywhere of grease.Must have drove like that for a number of weeks.Didnt harm the joint really,but put in a shaft anyway.

 

[Donald]

Your vehicle is approaching 20 years old. I would clean off the grease, inspect and re-grease and get a new boot on there pronto.

 

[Rylan]

Same thing happened on both outer boots on my '05 Accent.
Because my car was only 4 years old with ~50K miles, I decided to only replace the boots.

Ended up pulling the hubs, cleaned & regreased axles, and installed OE fit boots. IIRC, Hyundai only sold the complete CV axle assembly. The replacements were Beck Arnley and have lasted 4 years and ~40K miles so far.

 

[zzyzzx]

I would replace the axle with a new one. In fact, you probably need new axles on both sides.

 

[Tosh]

Welcome to your first FWD car!

 

[Lyman]

I had a CV boot let go on my Ranger. Grease everywhere. Found one of my hubs had been stuck locked. Replaced the axle and the hubs.