I'm not very familiar with cars so I was looking for help on identifying an engine part. 

 

I was driving this afternoon and saw some smoke coming out of my hood so I opened the hood and saw a fluid leak near the bottom of the engine.

 

It looks like a part tore and something came leaking out.  It's near the passenger side towards the back of the engine. Can you help me ID it?

CV boot tore. That "fluid" is axle grease. Have the boot replaced and you'll be good to go. 

Thank you! 

 

Is it a serious issue?  I'm wondering if I can make it to my mechanic about 30 miles away.

Yes you can make it 30 miles to a mechanic.

 

Just drive carefully and not too fast

 

TOONGA

Edited February 8, 201610 yr by TOONGA

Yeah. they can go a long while like that. You'd make a few thousand miles most likely before anything would fail. But once they start making clicking noise, you should replace the whole axle. Since you caught this one early, it's just a matter of pulling the axle and replacing that rubber boot and putting new grease in there.

 

Always better to have the boot replaced than to replace the whole axle. New Subaru axles are over $400 and are the only ones that last as a rule. The cheaper Napa axles and such tend to fail rapidly. New boot and grease will be about $20. and you'll pay the shop an hour or so in labor and be back on the road.

what he said ^^^^

 

seriously, MUCH better to pay to regrease/reboot your NTN axle. MUCH better.

Just noticed my cv joint started clicking on real hard turns. Boot doesn't appear torn.

Started last week as I made a real hard turn while heading into an uphill parking spot. Heard the click and there was some serious noise as if binding on that wheel.

 Is a re-grease/reboot a reasonable treatment or am I looking at replacement?

2005 OB 175K miles on original cv/boot

Edited February 8, 201610 yr by brus brother