I have a little dilema, so I noticed some oil on my parking spot right by the passenger side, I checked engine oil levels and that was fine, didn't see any oil on the bottom of the engine block,but I did notice by the passenger side boot, it's oily and has dirt grime,, guessing I need to replace the boot? If I have a shop do this, what type of cost am I looking at? 2004 Cooper s, also would I be able to drive it to work, about 25 miles one way? Many thAnks.

 

Sure it's not fluid from the passenger side motor mount?

 

To tell if the boot is torn, wipe some of the gease off. It will be thick grease and not thin like motor oil. If torn, it will move around and if its bad enough you can stick your finger in it. Compare it to the other boots.

If it's torn ,it's still perfectly safe to drive on. It takes a very long time to run out of grease. You will know its shot when it starts making a very loud noise when you turn. Even then your car is still drivable. My passenger side boot has been torn for months, I plan on fixing it when I do my clutch next month.

The drive shaft is around $100 , the garage will mark that up of course and the dealer price will be much higher. Don't really know how much labor will be, $400 to 800 maybe??

Good luck !

 

if the boot failed, it would be cracked and spraying grease, not oil. Jack the car up and investigate….me thinks it's motor oil or P/S fluid. Or even trans fluid.

 

It could be a slow leak from your oil cooler or oil filter housing gasket. I had the same issue with my car. The grease in the CV boot is pretty thick and tacky.....if you get a crack in the boot, most of the time it will throw some grease out, but it's not thin enough to really drip.

Either way...your best bet is to pull your wheel off, and get up under there and see what's leaking

 

It looks like the leak is coming from the oil pan, maybe the gasket?

 

Yes, could be the oil pan gasket. The best thing to do is to clean up everything really well and then run it for a while and see if you can talk exactly where the leak it's coming from.

 

I saw this on mine when I first dropped my car. Don't know what you're looks like but my rubber boot WASNT where it should be but the grease around it was crusty and had been there for a long time and it still handles fine in the canyons for me as long as it wants to center itself out when you release the steering wheel from a turn of it doesn't come back it's time to get a new one guy in my city said he could do it for bout $300 including labor hope this helps

 

I am hoping this weekend I can have it up at the shop to really check where the culprit is.