kwhiteside

I thought I had a CV boot problem, but tonight I took a close look and don't see any evidence of the boot leaking. I've got black smudgey stuff on my caliper, tie rod, and I get it on the inside of my wheels. The left driver side is dry.

Any ideas?

wallyman424

You sure its not the CV boot? did you pull off the wheel, pull out the axle and really look for cracks and stuff? They don't have to be huge, and are not always noticeable at first glance.

I'm gonna say 97% chance its your CV boot. Only other fluid in there is brake fluid, and its not goopy and black.

longdaddy

Could be brake fluid mixed with brake dust, when I had a leak it would feel pretty sticky once it got to the wheels, also chech the shock for leakage

kwhiteside

What would be best to use to totally clean the area without doing any damage?

GettReal

Half Shaft or shock leakage is my guess. I had that on one of mine and it turned out to be shock leakage. I also had a rear caliper go on me and had brake fluid running inside the wheel but it was more greasy then grimey or gooey.

davidfarmer

ball joints have grease also, albeit not much. Check all ball joints and tie rod ends just in case

sperkins

I noticed the exact same symptoms you describe and knew it was axle grease, but I couldn't see a cut anywhere on the boot. I pulled the axle to check it and sure enough there was a very tiny cut that was barely visible even 6 inches from my eyes.

Hazman

Ken
I will say this before others jump in here...You should not have parked so close to the 777 car at RR. Your car may have caught the dreaded C5Z6 boot flu!!!

Now on to more serious things. Is all the grease Black? If so I suspect it may not be the axle shaft boot. The grease in them is usually a greenish blue to dark gray and where it gets on the exhaust it leaves a white residue.

You need to get the half shaft out to really inspect it. It is not as hard as you think. Of course I have had lots of practice lately!

Short of that to clean it without removing the axle shaft take it outside and get the rear up on jackstands so you can rotate the axle as needed. Remove the wheel, remove your brake pads, remove the brake caliper and bracket and hang it off to the side out of the way, remove the rotor and then wipe as much as you possibly can off with shop rags turning the axle using the opposite wheel. Cover the parking brake pads with a plastic bag and then spray on a good degreaser and rinse it off with a hose or if you have one a pressure washer. If you use a pressure washer don't get too close to the boot or it will be damaged for sure. Clean the brake caliper, and the wheel also. Once it is all cleaned up and dry, take the car out for a quick drive (10 minutes or so) up to interstate speeds at least and then pull the wheel and look for a source of the offending fluid/grease.

I never could find where the grease was getting out of one of my leaking boots. No damage, no cuts, no loose clamps nothing and this was with the axle shaft removed and cleaned completely.

Good Luck and remember NO AFTERMARKET BOOTS OR AXLE SHAFTS!!!!

varkwso

He is the CV boot master

kwhiteside

Going to be rebuilding my rear calipers over next week. I'll see if I can get the powder coat yellow to show through again, and clean up the area. I doubt it is brake fluid as I've not noticed my resevoir going down at all.

Anybody have a GM part number. Advance Auto has a complete half axle for $69, but I'll take your advice and go GM.

kwhiteside

GMPartsDirect looks like you need the shaft (Axle assy Back), inside (Inner joint Back ) and outside (Outer joint Back) joints all for about $700 a side. Hmmm, don't think that is going to happen.

sperkins

You'll be better off to buy one here off the forum from a wreck or something similar. I bought one last year pretty cheap.

Oh yeah I just remembered that LG Motorsports sells used ones. Check it out here:

http://www.lgmotorsports.com/catalog...?cPath=648_651

Hazman

You can buy just a replacement boot.

Some info in this thread.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/auto...uto-parts.html

kwhiteside

So I'll clean the area up real good and drive it first.

Assuming it is the Half Shaft - - -

$70 AdvanceAuto
$170 FactoryUsed
$300 Factory New Gene Culley

Sure our time is worth something, but that is a huge gap. Why don't we want to go aftermarket?

davidfarmer

there is another post about reman units having "stiff" boots, that tend to tear and leak quickly. Unless you think the joint is damaged, I'd just get a new boot (or completely rebuild kit" and do it myself. All you need is to slip the new one on and crimp the clips.

0Randy@DRM

Add a new GM boot kit for about 60 bucks

vetracer

I had grease inside of my rear wheels that came from injecting too much grease into the toe link zerk fittings. Didn't have it on the caliper like you did but I suppose its possible it could land there too. Now I just give it a pump or two until I see the rubber boot start to move and stop.

kwhiteside

Forum guy has a used one sitting around from 2000 C5, but it is drivers side and not from Z06.

Anybody know if the side matters and if the Z06 is different from non-Z06?

Hazman

Side does not matter Non-Z06 vs Z06 does!

SouthernSon

I'm going with longdaddy on this. I know you haven't noticed a loss of fluid but look the caliper over really, really good and see if there is any sign of fluid film. My super duper SL6's leaked from the plugs and it was so sticky I could not figure out what the heck it was till eventually the reservoir did show signs of loss and I found the offending plugs.