Thick black oil/grease

Could be tar, could be CV grease from a split gaiter (if your car is front/four wheel drive).

HTH

Anthony Remove eight from email to reply.

It is Front wheel drive, its a Vauxhall corsa 1.2sxi, but X reg. I dont really know much about these things, what exactly does the gaiter cover? and would i be able to see a split in a gaiter?

Cheers,

John

The gaiter covers the CV joint, which is part of the driveshaft. It allows drive to be transmitted through an angle as the front wheels steer side to side. It is a precision component, so the gaiter keeps road grit out of the joint, and keeps the lubricating grease in. After a while, the flexing of the gaiter causes it to split and the grease to leak out. Obviously, this can also allow contaminants into the CV joint, and lead to rapid wear.

You can check the gaiter by moving the steering wheel onto full lock, then looking into the gap between the wheel and the wheel arch. The driveshaft is the metal shaft coming horizontally into the centre of the wheel, the gaiter is the corrugated black plastic part on the end of the driveshaft. If it has split badly, it will be immediately obvious. Smaller splits can be pin-pointed by grease marks on the plastic.

Replacement shouldn't be too expensive if it has gone - about an hours labour. The part itself is about £7.

HTH

Anthony Remove eight from email to reply.

actually

It is either the remains of a well decayed animal :-(((((((( or you may have a failed drive shaft gaiter which is repairable with little cost if done very soon. :-))

Huw

Thanks very much for your replies, ill go and check to see if a gaiter has split in the morning :) Ill also check for reminants of small 'well decayed' animals!

Kind Regards,

John

Just being pedantic, but not all four wheel drives use CV boots. Most likely anything with solid axles won't.

And more than likely that anything with side skirts wont have a solid axle!

Anthony remove eight from email to reply.

Wouldnt that make them rather difficult to steer?

Take a look at a Defender/Range Rover/Disco next time you see one.

I did just try to write a description of how it works but it made no sense to me, so you wouldn't have stood a chance.

Take look at one and you'll see how it works.

You get non-CV universal joints on 4x4s with solid axles (My Dad calls these Hardy Spicer joints...)

-- James

Not if it was on the back ;-)

On the front (at least in the 4x4's I've driven), the CV or universal joint is inside a swivel joint, immersed in gearbox oil.

Rather than a flexible gaiter/boot, instead there is a ball and socket arrangement. The ball is hollow, and fits on the back of the hub (or is part of the hub). This fits inside a socket which has a seal around the edge, so that not too much oil leaks out (a certain amount of seepage is to be expected with one of these)

I think that part time 4x4's use UJ's (Hardy Spicer) while permanent 4x4's like Defender/Disco/Rangie and Lada Niva's use CV's.