how much SLUDGE under the car is NORMAL?

[jjsacidy]

93tsi awd. i have what i think is a lot of sludge under like my front driverside a arm. and a little bit back and stuff. a kid that knew about the car b4 i bought it said something was leaking they wanted to get a new plate or something. my dad says its perfectly normal, but its up to 1/4" thick or more in some spots and it almost looks like from the driver side drive shaft/axel seal or something? cuz its up in that area too. doesnt seem to use any oil at all and tranny+transfer were full too. i cleaned some off the fame member b4 and about 550miles later nothing really on it cept i could have swore i cleaned some of the other area. clutch and brakes seem ok too. any similar problems? i wouldnt normally be this worried but the kid said it leaked oil like a mother.... but now its not? maybe since the head job its not even doing it tho.

i beat this car like i hate it(its actually a love hate relationship ) but i freak out over everything!

 

[JessesTalon]

I had alot of that same stuff your thinking of. I think its normal... or maybe it means your hood is going to fly up like mine did 2 times in 2 months... who knows?

 

[c5chris]

Check your CV joints in your axles. Your AWD car has 4 just in the front (2 outer, 2 inner) and these go bad after years of use. Basically, the rubber sleeves tears, start leaking grease and throws it under your car including your wheels and rotors. Bad axles are serious and they are cheap to fix when done early.

 

[jjsacidy]

so all those rubber boots r filled with grease then? thats what i was thinking before too. wouldnt they make noise then or something? can i seal or replace it EASILY? right now im swappin trannys but im not removing the axels, just doin like vfaq. how can i check? would it be a huge tear plain as day or maybe just a pinhole? seems it came from right by the tranny where the shaft comes out or above that.

 

[jjsacidy]

o yea any idea about the "plate" he was talking about? they all graduated so i dont know how to find him and all i get is shit from the ass hole i bought it from (i delt with the kids dad) the kid was pretty straight with me.

 

[jjsacidy]

huh my dad says its gotta be oil or tranny fluid, id say nice black motor oil with a nice bit of dirt and dust

 

[ArticNemesis]

sounds like axle grease to me... Check the boots on your axles.. It can be an inexpensive repair if you catch it now. If you let it sit and dirt gets in there, you will be replacing axles down the road.

If it was torn, the axles might not be making noise yet, but you will eventually get the popping sound during turns...

 

[jjsacidy]

nah i think its just from yeeeeeears of slight sepage, and yea on the pass side ones torn with a little grease on it cept my hub nuts r so damn rusted theres no longer any sign of a cotter pin.... so i dont know, my dad says they make wrap arounds? is that true? otherwise the hell with that. let it go till the cv's SNAP then i spose bring it in or w/e and get new shit. otherwise a little bit of rubber zip tied around it work? its right by the end of the boot so i dont think any dirt got in.

 

[Perch - Tsi]

Drill out the remnanats of the old cotter pin, and hose everything down with all the PB Blaster you can get your hands on, then go at it with an impact.
make sure you drilled out the entire pin, the inside of the hole on the shaft in incredibly hard steel, you wont damage it, but i had to get pretty postal with mine to get it off.

 

[steve]

Split boots don't last. If your CV joints aren't toast right now and you can't pull the axle from the hub it sounds like you would have to a getto job with them in the car by dropping the suspension to get some free play and cutting off the inside TJ boot to pull the snap clip and inner joint off. The you can cut the outer boot and regrease and replace the boot. Put the inner boot, joint and snap ring back on grease the JB casing and slip the axle in and the boot over. Then clamp everthing down.

After rebuilding my front axles off the car, when it came time to do the fronts in the Stealth I bought rebuilt ones from Raxles. It was so much easier to replace them and a lot cleaner.

Pray for the axles easily coming out of the hubs.

Steve

 

[Diplomat]

"After rebuilding my front axles off the car, when it came time to do the fronts in the Stealth I bought rebuilt ones from Raxles. It was so much easier to replace them and a lot cleaner." - steve

Roger that. Replacing CV boots is a bit of a pain, to say the least. Considering the fact that you can get good rebuilt OE axles pretty cheap, (sometimes less than $100) it's just not worth the headaches and the money you'd spend on the new boots and other parts. Check with a local big name transmission specialist like AAMCO. 95% of them won't waste their time rebuilding. It's cheaper and faster for them and the customer to replace with rebuilds.

I agree with the cyber diagnosis. CV boots split left and right. I've been saying for a long time that there's got to be a synthetic out there that lasts longer and is almost as cheap to produce as the rubber boots used now.

 

[steve]

I've been saying for a long time that there's got to be a synthetic out there that lasts longer and is almost as cheap to produce as the rubber boots used now.

I've got no complaints, my boots lasted 13 years and 120k without a problem until one broke at the band clamp to the axle. But that does remind me to call Marty and ask him what he found out about the anti-expansion o-rings that were on my stock boot. He hadn't seen ones like that before and they clearly worked.

Steve

 

[jjsacidy]

i have o rings in the grooves on the boots too. would those thin zipties do an even better job than rubber? o btw im gonna get a split boot tomarrow