How thick is CV axle grease? Leak diagnosis, help needed.
 

Noticed an active drip from my wife's 2001 Sentra SE 2.0 today when I was moving the cars. Got it up on stands and got underneath it. The driver's side CJ joint boot is wet, and some kind of fluid is collecting on the lower control arm and then dripping on the ground.

Everything ABOVE the CJ joint looks dry, looking both from underneath and from below. But the fluid that's dripping is thinner, more like motor oil, not thick like I assumed axle grease would be.

Any guesses? I wondered if maybe it was transmission fluid leaking down the axle assembly, but seriously the boot is soaked with it -- it seems like it must either be leaking from inside the boot, or getting dripped on from above.

Okay, I just came across a post that mentioned that if water gets inside the boot, it can thin the grease out and it'll look like old MTF when it leaks out.

We've had torrential rain over the last week (after going 3-4 weeks without a drop). Is it possible that water worked its way inside the boot and now the thinner grease/water is leaking out?

I've no knowledge of its water-solubility, but CV joint grease is quite thick in its natural state. The closest analogy I could think of would be something like the consistency of a 50/50 mixture of semen and the adhesive paste that we used in kindergarten to glue pieces of construction paper together. Not the liquid glue- the stuff that came in the glass jar and had a brush that you used to spread it.

It's about the same viscosity as anti-seize.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...-cv-grease.jpg

if it looks like nutella, better change it out.

Joe you bastard, you made me laugh out loud in very small lecture.