I been driving around with this sticky substance on my front left rim for about 2 or so months. Every time when I wash my car I would try to clean it up, but I always end up giving up after a few passes. This morning since my steering wheel was turn almost all the way to the left and the back of my rim were expose. I was shocked at what I found:





A few question:

- what is the name of that part? what is its function?
- how did it break? (if you know)
- is it safe to drive around like that?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

 

its ur outter cv joint, looks fresh so it musta ripped open recently, prob when u turned the wheel and locked it..

since the grease was there 2 months ago, u prob had a minor cut in it with all the grease slowly leaking out..

definetly not safe, get it changed asap! worst case is that it seizes up when u turn or going straight and then breaks off...

thats weird that it broke like that. usually it just leaks and then creates vibrations....do u get any vibrations?

 

Odd, this happens to so many TL's as I think about it TL has a lot of problems with it lol, still love the car though. Anyways if you don't get it changed ASAP your car will look like mine did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmIYt7drZ8
^my video I made about 45mins after it happened, I spent 3 hours like that waiting for it to be towed, the neighbors were kind enough to help me out by giving me a jack and refreshments lol.

Don't mind my bitching in the video, the guy who sold me the car played no roll in the problem, I'm just a dumbass who didn't do anything about it in till something like this happened.

 

^^ god damn

 

Yup, I thought my tire popped cus it was on it's way there neways but when I came out to see what happened, I shit my pants a little. All is good now, $400.00 later and now my cars drives good as new =).... accept my fender is now bent -.-.

 

Your lower ball joint broke, not the CV joint.

The OP's issue is the CV joint. But either way, get that replaced ASAP!

 

how does that tear open again?

I didnt notice any vibration. Are you asking if the steering wheel vibrate when turning?

 

Yeah true, but it'll come towards the same ending breaking like that, right?

 

Not necessarily. The ball joints/control arms hold the wheel from falling off like that, not the CV joint.

 

Yea my cv boot got busted. Mechanic said if you drive fast and turn, it will wear out/bust much faster. Only $65 to get it repair!! Thank god....

 

^^ thats a good price, i wanted to get my cvs change too but its like 120 each side.


but do try to avoid driving a lot until its fix, thats really dangerous.

 

I would have drop it off, but I didnt have the key for my lug nuts. Blasted! So I'm dropping off the car tomorrow.

 

Once you hear clicking then you know it's a big problem. It's fine to drive on it if there's no clicking.

$65 is a great price. Is he replacing the whole axle?

 

The clicking is when the axle is bad. This is only the boot. If I wanted to replace the axle, it would be $165.

 

But the problem is is its been torn open and debris like sand dirt water etc has gotten in there and can be causing damage. Simply putting a new boot on wont fix that. Hopefully the mechanic doing the work will really clean that well at bare minimum and regrease every thing.

 

This is Nothing like the OPs problem nor is it a problem that many TL's have.

 

Hmm...lets hope they know what they're doing.

 

thats why preventative maintenance is best! i changed my lowers long time ago, when there was slight play