Leaking Grease ???

[mikeyb13]

Have some black grease leaking onto the inside of the rear wheel of the Elise. Had a look and found the outside of the upper wishbone and CV Gaitor covered in grease. I judged from the amount of grease and the fact the CV Gaitor was covered that it must have been the source of the leak, so ordered a replacement.

Went to change it through the week so gave the area a clean before I started working and to my surprise the CV Gaitor looks perfect. The car feels fine to me, So I decided to put the wheel back on and took the car round the block to see if I could figure out the source of the leak and guess what? No more grease appeared.

The only other place I could guess its come from is the upper ball joint, it was probably covered in most grease but theres no play in it as far as I can tell the joint looks fine and could it produce this much grease?

[philthy]

Does the CV boot have a jubilee clip holding it in place normally?

[robin]

Could also be coming out of the hydraulic engine mount and finding it's way there, though would expect grease elsewhere too ... that grease could also have been expelled from the gaitor when really hot if there was too much grease in the gaitor to start with?

By the way you need to do something about your braided brake lines. Look at the bottom left corner of the picture. You can see a polished zone on the hose where it is moving back and forth in the over-size P-clip. The steel braid is hard and sharp so it will cut through the rubber. When it finishes cutting through the rubber it will hit the steel band that forms the outer of the P-clip. This will then fret the outer of the pipe until it's weak enough to burst it will just as you slam on the brakes ... not nice.

If you have the problem here, you'll have it on all four wishbones.

First check that the pipes aren't already damaged - your call on how to do that - but if in doubt, replace.

Second get some suitable rubber hose to use as a sleeve to adapt the hose to clamp nicely into the P-clip. You can slit the sleeve pipe and pop it over the braided hose. If you don't make it too snug then the hose can still move about if tugged - this will allow it to find a natural resting point such that there is enough slack for full travel actually experienced.

Repeat on the other three corners.

Cheers,
Robin

[mikeyb13]

Dont think its coming from the mount. All the clips are secure and look to me to be in the right place.
My thoughts on excess grease being expelled at high temp was that surely it would come out of the side with the breather on it. The gearbox side of the Gaitor is clean.

Good spot on the brake line Robin will investigate further.

[Gourlay83]

What is probably happening is because of the heat the grease is thinning and spraying out, pretty common on Honda conversions i've seen.

You MUST use a good quality high temperature grease (not the black sh*t).
Make sure a breather is fitted at the driveshaft end
Use a small amount of grease on the CV joint only, don't fill the CV boot with grease.

If you don't it sprays everywhere and makes a proper mess.

HTH
Alan

[Gourlay83]

Does the CV boot have a jubilee clip holding it in place normally?

That's not a jubilee clip, it's a normal clip with a pipe to act as a breather.

Breather might not be working as well, the flat plate idea works better. As per the inner CV joints

[philthy]

I was meaning at the hub end of the boot, looks like there was one fitted and its gone.

[Stu160]

What I dont like about the honda.....

Only kidding Mikey.

Looks like it may have split the ball joint rubber, or there is a small tear in the boot, sometimes hard to see.

Stu

[mikeyb13]

Cheers guys. Never had the gaitor off Alan so its still what you put in there.
Stu take it if its the balljoint that would explain why the grease is black.

[Stu160]

Cheers guys. Never had the gaitor off Alan so its still what you put in there.
Stu take it if its the balljoint that would explain why the grease is black.

My Guess would be the driveshaft, the grease in the balljoint is not usually black, and there is not very much of it. It only needs to be a small cut.

Stu

[mikeyb13]

Now Im confused. Not that it takes much.
Will have another look tomorow.

[Gourlay83]

It will be the driveshaft, I've only replaced one CV joint and used the black grease but since then have learned it isn't a good idea. Due to the heat.

Inner joints are normally where the problem is but your car has the proper grease (expensive) and the flat breathers which seems to work.

The outer joints might need the same treatment. I had exactly the same issue with the inner joints, spraying grease everywhere even though the gators were fine.

Alan

P.s Stark built the driveshafts, I replaced the inner gators with smaller ones, fitted breathers and used high temp grease but the outers are pretty much standard.

[mikeyb13]

Cheers Alan. That makes sense now.
Hoping to get it up to Knockhill for TT

[Gourlay83]

Cheers Alan. That makes sense now.
Hoping to get it up to Knockhill for TT

Well, if I can help let me know. Best call might be to remove the shaft and the joint, clean well and rebuild. It's difficult to do when still attached but understand if you don't bother, as it's a bit of a pain in the erse to remove.

Best of luck.
Alan

[mikeyb13]

Think if its a pain in the erse for you then Ive no fecking chance