Green grease/gunk all over front wheel!

[SimonR]

I have spent a happy few hours today preparing F153 for a 2,000 mile trip to Scotland: new oil, oil filter, air filter, gearbox oil, camcovers, cam cover gaskets, vacuum pipes etc. You would not believe the difference it's made! That's £85 well spent...

Thing is, while I was changing the gearbox oil (wheel off) I noticed a large amount of greenish coloured grease-like stuf on the wheel, in the wheel arch and also all over the break/shock absorber assembly! Not good.

I'm reckoning that it's the shock absorer that's deposited this because 1)it doesn't smell like oil or brake fluid and 2) the shocks at the front are of an unknown age. The only niggling doubt is that it could be from the CV boot/break assembly.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

If it is the shock that is dead, is there anything I should ask for when getting it replaced?

Many thanks for your help!

SiR

PS you woudn't believe what a difference new, non-warped cam covers and a change of oil make to a rather high mileage s-Series engine! This may spell the end of the oil leak I've been trying to stem...
:)

[MGTurbo]

You have a split CV boot without a doubt.

Gareth

[e692wtt]

I'd go with that as well. You can get 'split driveshaft boots' which mean that you don't need to do any major dismantling to fit it (just remove the wheel as opposed to taking the driveshaft off etc). Just make sure you don't glue your fingers together or to the car, and don't breathe in the fumes from the adhesive!

The other other Rich.:laugh:

[SimonR]

Ah, thanks for that info - I'm rather glad that it's not the shock as I know that the front ones are more expensive to replace.

Thanks also for the tip about split boots, Rich. These sound much more appealing than either fitting the normal type myself or paying a monkey to bodge it up at a garage for me. I read the Haynes manual section on renewing the outer boots and it started with 'withdraw the drive shaft as described in chapter 4' - at that point I gave up ;)

Would you recommend them as a permanent fix, or are they more of a bodge? I'm guessing that you remove the old boot, regrease, wrap the new one around and then glue the seam closed...?

It's got to at least stand up for 2,000 miles of motoring as I'm off this weekend on holiday from Cambridge to Inverness and back via most of Scotland. Pictures of F153 in pleasent mountainous settings will hopefully follow shortly!

[e692wtt]

They're a good, permanent fix. The boots outer and inner ends need trimming to match the diameters of the driveshaft (inner end) and cv joint (outer end), but the Instructions will explain this better than I can. Otherwise it's as you surmise, and the kit provides grease as well as a very sharp knife to do the cutting. A kit for a 2.0i Montego cost £13-ish from Andrew Page's in Bury last summer, and took about 45 mins to fit.

The other other Rich.:)

[SimonR]

Good news, I've just phoned my local and friendly, not to mention a little geeky, motorfactor and he has them for 11 quid. He also reckons that they are as good as the non-split type, as long as you keep the area v. clean and avoid getting grease on the glued surface. Obvious really.

Looks like I have another Maestro-orientated evening ahead of me :)

Muchas gracias amigos.

[E_T_V]

That is handy to know I didn't know they did split type boots.. very handy to know indeed especially as ours is due for its MOT and I've not been under it for a while to check such things.

[SimonR]

Fantastic, took the wheel off and replaced the boot last night when I got home from work. It's one of the most messy jobs you could do, would have been worse if most of the grease hadn't been spread all over the wheel and wheel arch. The old boot had actually split in half when I got to it last night - odd because it looked intact on Saturday...

The only problem was the metal clip which holds the boot at the wheel end - my hands were so greasy that I couldn't grip it to tighten it up and then it wouldn't tighten sufficiently when I cleaned it up. A quick tweak with some pliers sorted it out tho.

I also took the opportunity to waxoyl the entire front sub-frame and everything else under there while I was at it. Looks great now :)

[John]

I didn't know you could get split CV joints, do they have any particular name or manufacturer. I remeber wondering why we couldn't have split rubbers last time I was struggling to replace one.

[SimonR]

The ones I bought were actually £13.50 each, in a black, red and white box bearing the ledgend 'Universal Split Driveshaft Boot' - no brand name or anything. The only problem with these ones is the metal clip that holds the boot to the wheel hub. I wasn't totally convinced that it would hold because I couldn't make it stay closed, anyway, when I checked yesterday evening it had dislodged and ended up down the drive shaft.

I've cadged some heavy-duty nylon cable ties from work to solve the problem, which I'll do tonight, if it's not raining too hard.

BTW, I couldn't work out how the original metal clips work - they're basically like nylon cable ties only there are no teeth on the metal strap. How the hell does the fastner allow a shiny metal strap to pass one way but not the other?! Doesn't matter much now anyway because as I've established, they don't work! :o

[John]

The last one (standard) I did was supplied with nylon cable ties and they seemed to work OK. Thanks for the info that job will be a lot easier in future.:)

[e692wtt]

I think the generic 'split cv joint boot' is Bailcast, they are made in Chorley, Lancs. Mine were Quinton Hazell, and I messed things up by asking myself how the metal straps work and then I couldn't use the thing having closed it and unable to get it apart.

I swear by Nylon Cable Ties for jobs like this anyway and have never had trouble with them.

Your local motor factor will have them in stock, whether a 'big name' or not. In North Manchester I use Andrew Page in Bury as a supplier of general service items as they are the people who supply the high street motor factors so are cheaper even without trade discount. They provided my split boots as above (QH).

I think you make a valid point about checking the security of the cv joint rubbers after fitting and then using the car for a short time, though!

The other other Rich.
;)