The Subaru really STINKS!

"When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help.  Habitual recurrance to the harmony will increase your mastery of it." - Marcus Aurelius

 

For the past few days, when I've pulled into the garage and got out of the trusty old Subie, there has been a foul-smelling burnt odor that I couldn't quite place.  It smelled vaguely like burning rubber, but not exactly like that.  It didn't exactly smell like burnt motor oil either.  I was a bit worried that it was smoking transmission fluid.  But no, all the fluid levels were normal, and the belt that drives the accessories wasn't squealing, dragging or smoking anywhwere.  I simply could not locate the source of the stink.

This went on for several days, and I couldn't figure out what was causing the burning odor.  A couple of different times, I started the engine with the hood open.  I'd sniff and look for smoke.  I saw nothing smoking, although I could still detect a residual burning odor.  And then at last, I looked down along-side the engine and spotted the source:  There were specks of grease all over the exhaust pipe heat shield on the passenger side.

But where was the grease coming from?  It took a while to find that too.  It was coming from the passenger side front axle CV joint.  The rubber boot has developed a tiny crack.  Every time I drive, centrifugal force flings grease out the tiny hole when the axle rotates.  Some of this grease spray hits the exhaust pipe, oxidizes, and then the entire garage stinks like a crack den.  

It doesn't fling grease when you pop the hood in the garage to locate the problem, because the car isn't in motion.  This last time I investigated, the hole in the rubber boot just happened to be facing up when I looked inside the engine compartment.

Below:  The offending CV joint boot - the little hole is not showing.  The widest part of the CV joint robber boot looks a little wet - and we know why.  Now I also know what the odor of burning CV joint grease smells like.

What you are looking at in the above image is the right rubber boot the axle in the image below.

So... guess what I'll be doing on my one day off this week?  A repeat of this clown-car event.  If it weren't such a shit-show last time, I might have considered replacing the passenger side axle as well.  But it was a shit-show and I didn't want to be under the car any more at that point.