Mysterious smell + newly visible grease
10-08-2009, 09:29 AM
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Mysterious smell + newly visible grease
Hi everyone. I hope someone here can point me further in the right direction.
I have a 2001 A4 (2.8 quattro, tiptronic). It has 106k miles.
Recently, within the past 2 weeks, I've noticed a "hot smell" when getting out of my car. It reminds me of hot tires/brakes or a hot clutch. But the wheels are not especially hot to the touch, and I don't have any noise that would indicate a bad wheel bearing. When I lift the hood the smell isn't necessarily stronger, but I can still smell it. In order to break this down, I will list the symptoms I've seen/heard over the past few months that may be related, but I have yet to pin them down to exactly what is wrong.
1) noise akin to flat spot or out of balance tire, had tires rotated beginning of September and noise did not transfer ... still comes from the front of the car.
2) hot smell
3) the new grease deposit I found today on my rim.
4) do not notice any grease slung around the wheel well, which would indicate a leak in a boot.
5) i have seen this grease on the other wheel, but just recently
6) hot smell does not correlate to length of drive or driving conditions... sometimes it's worse than others.
A note about the linked picture. I took the picture after I drove the car back to my office, so the wheel is not in the same position. The arrow indicates the grease. The x marks where it was when I came back to my car from lunch. The grease was still very moist, and was not necessarily very runny. But in about 1 hour it only dripped about 4 inches. The thing I find odd is the location. It was greenish/grey in color and smelled like the hot smell I have noticed.
I hope someone can put these together. It's very odd and before I take it somewhere I'd like to have some sort of idea. I suppose it could be a wheel bearing but I don't notice much noise like that, the noise is more like a bad tire... but as I said I've rotated them and all tires checked out fine and the noise remained up front.
I have a 2001 A4 (2.8 quattro, tiptronic). It has 106k miles.
Recently, within the past 2 weeks, I've noticed a "hot smell" when getting out of my car. It reminds me of hot tires/brakes or a hot clutch. But the wheels are not especially hot to the touch, and I don't have any noise that would indicate a bad wheel bearing. When I lift the hood the smell isn't necessarily stronger, but I can still smell it. In order to break this down, I will list the symptoms I've seen/heard over the past few months that may be related, but I have yet to pin them down to exactly what is wrong.
1) noise akin to flat spot or out of balance tire, had tires rotated beginning of September and noise did not transfer ... still comes from the front of the car.
2) hot smell
3) the new grease deposit I found today on my rim.
4) do not notice any grease slung around the wheel well, which would indicate a leak in a boot.
5) i have seen this grease on the other wheel, but just recently
6) hot smell does not correlate to length of drive or driving conditions... sometimes it's worse than others.
A note about the linked picture. I took the picture after I drove the car back to my office, so the wheel is not in the same position. The arrow indicates the grease. The x marks where it was when I came back to my car from lunch. The grease was still very moist, and was not necessarily very runny. But in about 1 hour it only dripped about 4 inches. The thing I find odd is the location. It was greenish/grey in color and smelled like the hot smell I have noticed.
I hope someone can put these together. It's very odd and before I take it somewhere I'd like to have some sort of idea. I suppose it could be a wheel bearing but I don't notice much noise like that, the noise is more like a bad tire... but as I said I've rotated them and all tires checked out fine and the noise remained up front.
10-08-2009, 09:31 AM
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Sorry for the double post but I didn't see an edit button and realized I forgot my link!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56839606@N00/3993562858/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56839606@N00/3993562858/
10-09-2009, 06:45 PM
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Since you mention that the grease is not very runny, things I would think of is the
1. CV boot is beginning to rip and sprays grease on the disc brake.
2. CV boot straps got loose.
It doesn't take long to remove tire and take a look.
1. CV boot is beginning to rip and sprays grease on the disc brake.
2. CV boot straps got loose.
It doesn't take long to remove tire and take a look.
10-12-2009, 07:18 AM
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Thanks I'll check the boots again. I had the wheel off about 3 weeks ago but didn't see anything, but I suppose it could be larger hole now that might be more visible.
Would a CV joint that is lacking in grease make the smell/noise/vibration I've described?
Would a CV joint that is lacking in grease make the smell/noise/vibration I've described?
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