(Apologies for posting twice so close together.)

 

I recently had to have the pass. side axle replaced on our '03 Outback (folks here have helped with this). The CV boot had torn and grease was thrown out onto the top of the exhaust, causing a smell unlike any other routine car smell I had smelled before (i.e., distinctive). We're set to replace the axle with a Subaru one, but now the smell is back and the boot is intact and I can't see anything odd about the axle. Is it possible that something internal and unnoticeable is going bad on this axle and causing that same smell? If not, I'm worried I need to be looking for another problem. The smell is pretty strong and infiltrates the cabin, especially after the first 10 minutes or so in the car.

Sometimes before the boot completely rips open it will just spew a little grease and the initial tear is not obvious. Sometimes on a poorly rebuilt axle the grease can leak around the boot band clamps too.

 

Also unless you spend some time wiping up all the grease that spewed from the first break, the smell can linger for a long time. Even if you do wipe it up it still smells I have noticed because some of the grease gets in between the cat heat shields and stuff where you can't clean it out. It took a few months to go away on my '00obw even though I wiped up the grease. Yes that is a unique smell....

 

Also have you looked at the other axle, maybe one of its boots has split?

 

I just had that boot tear on my '96 and replaced it with a Subaru oem reman axle...all the grease all over the cat heat shield is going to smell for a while.

That axle grease will burn for a LOOOOOONG time. Most likely a couple months. It's irratating, but not dangerous.

 

If it gets stronger, look at the differential seals, the gear oil smells very similar when it burns. You'll only get this on hard turns tho. My Leggy scared the living crap outta me on The Dragon. She spilled a small amount of gear oil on the cat & SERIOUSLY smoked for a few mins. (missing dipstick)

Sometimes before the boot completely rips open it will just spew a little grease and the initial tear is not obvious. Sometimes on a poorly rebuilt axle the grease can leak around the boot band clamps too.[/Quote]

 

This one is right over that heat shield, and there was nothing on it. We looked pretty hard and didn't see anything anywhere, but point taken.

 

Also unless you spend some time wiping up all the grease that spewed from the first break, the smell can linger for a long time. Even if you do wipe it up it still smells I have noticed because some of the grease gets in between the cat heat shields and stuff where you can't clean it out. It took a few months to go away on my '00obw even though I wiped up the grease. Yes that is a unique smell....[/Quote]

 

This must be why my mechanic warned that it would linger, even though he had done his best to clean it up. What's odd is that it didn't smell at all for a while after the initial fix, but has now returned. Either way, this axle comes out tomorrow morning. zzz

 

Also have you looked at the other axle, maybe one of its boots has split?[/Quote]

 

I'll have him check, but that would be sh*tty luck, eh? (No, I'm not Canadian.)

 

I just had that boot tear on my '96 and replaced it with a Subaru oem reman axle...all the grease all over the cat heat shield is going to smell for a while.[/Quote]

 

Those pictures look familiar!

 

Thanks again porcupine for all you do here!

Sounds good! I just noticed the smell in my '96 today but I just replaced the axle this weekend. That's what those pics are from. Those pics are fresh out of the box from this weekend, I've never posted those before. I have posted my '00obw pics before though, I used an MWE axle on that one which worked fine; thought I would try an OEM this time seems to be working well too but is like twice the price.

Just a thought, I had a similar problem on my 03 legacy. Smell in cabin especally in traffic. Under warrenty on 4 seperate trips to the dealer both front axles (one twice) and the transmission seals were replaced. This did not cure the smell. The end result was the hg was leaking on the drivers side and dripping onto the exhaust. the smell was hard to diaginose partially because I am not the daily driver of the car.

Just a thought, I had a similar problem on my 03 legacy. Smell in cabin especally in traffic. Under warrenty on 4 seperate trips to the dealer both front axles (one twice) and the transmission seals were replaced. This did not cure the smell. The end result was the hg was leaking on the drivers side and dripping onto the exhaust. the smell was hard to diaginose partially because I am not the daily driver of the car.

YIKES! What year did SOA say they fixed the HG problem??

YIKES! What year did SOA say they fixed the HG problem??

 

Officially in 2002. Without going into details the car has had both headgaskets replaced (the drivers twice) along with the 2 drivers side pistons replaced. SOA won't replace the engine (they could have saved money if they did that initally) and I can't lemmon the car.

Yeah, serious Yikes. I hope our '03 doesn't develop the same problems. I'm reasonably sure that our smell is from the residual grease when the boot tore the first time and threw it all over the place.

 

For the record though, can someone post a picture or describe where I could look to see about the head gasket leak possibility?

 

We just had the axle replaced yesterday and our vibration problem went away!! I'll post a final time to that thread to close it out.