Transmission oil or driveshaft boot grease?

[goldNSX]

After a very fast run near maximum speed there is oil spray on the left rear suspension/inner side of the tire etc.

oil residue on the shaft itself (most of it wipped off)

centralfugality is great!

Transmission oil level is still max. There is no tear in the boots, ok, they're 18 years old.

I'm getting older...my cars gets older...so if I run into 'mechanical' repairs myself I hope they can just be fixed. :wink:

 

[NSXclear]

What color coolant do you use?

Maybe the coolant is mixed with oil.

Do a compression check. Check your coolant level.

 

[goldNSX]

?????

What are you talking about? I'm talking about transmission oil or driveshaft grease. :wink:

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

Driveshaftgrease tends to get thin over time, so maybe it came out due to centrifugal forces.
However, not all signs are pointing at the driveshaft.

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

What color coolant do you use?

Maybe the coolant is mixed with oil.

Do a compression check. Check your coolant level.

I agree, he should do that as well...lol

 

[drew]

that is a pretty clean transmission.

Have you checked your cam and vtec seals? It may be that a few drops of oil getting slung around.

I'd get a couple of CV boots and the tool on hand, you might also have a very small leak in the inner boot.

 

[Briank]

I would say you just had some tire dressing on the inside of the wheel that spun off at high speed.

 

[KooLaid]

Don't know how but it looks like tire dressing.

There'd be grease on the a arms and inside the wheel if it were the outer CV. The inner looks super clean but if it were the inner, there'd be some on the transmission case.

It does look like you had a coolant issue, either leak or just a spill at one time or another according to the picture of the swaybar.

Also does not appear to be transmission oil since the leak would seep out at the seal where the CV inserts into the case. Since the case is clean, it doesn't appear to the problem either.

Was it grease or oil that was wiped from the shaft? Wipe it all clean, spotless. Drive it a short bit and check it again. Drive it some more, going a bit faster each time and check.

Maybe your coolant tank/lines are leaking.

 

[goldNSX]

During last winter I cleaned the whole gearbox, wheel wells, suspenion etc. That's why it's much easier to detect any oil spray. :wink:

- It's not tire dressing as I don't use any.
- It's not coolant because the color of my coolant is blue. The green is the anti-corrosion stuff Honda used on some aluminium parts like screws and so on.

A second check showed that it's maybe not transmission oil as it smells different.
It was OIL-like, not grease that's why I'm suspicious.

Good hint on the VTEC gaskets. These plus the cam plugs have been done within the last year but I check them for sure.

One question: Can driftshaft boot grease melt down to the point (LarryB once said like ice-cream) that it looks like oil only for a fraction of the hole amount?

 

[DutchBlackNsx]

Is it black, or at least, dark grey? Does it smell disgusting?

 

[goldNSX]

The oil film is so thin that I can't say what color the oil is. It doesn't smell disgusting like gearbox oil does. It's pretty neutral.

EDIT: I washed the tire today with engine compartment cleaner and the oil film is hard to remove, actually didn't remove all.

It's not engine oil as I checked and photographed every sinlge angle around the cam plugs and VTEC solenoids. Everything's dry up there.

So I think it's driveshaft boot grease that melted at high speed.

 

[DrewA]

I don't know know if the NSX transaxel is built this way but I had a similar problem with another car. All seals and gaskets were good but I continued to spray black oil/grease by centrifical force all over the lower half of the engine compartment. Turn outs the inner CV joint is bolted to the "sprocket" that comes out of the transmission. The "sprocket" is splined and slips onto the differential. A bolt goes down the center of the sprocket and screws into the differential. The inside of the sprocket must be heavily RTV 'd and the outside of the bolt must be RTV's otherwise gear oil can get through the sprocket and dilute the grease in the differential and you end up slinging diluted balck grease all over the place.

Just a thought.

Drew Altemara