Left front CV axle, outer boot is throwing grease. No clicking or popping noises when turning, so the joint is probably OK at this point.

I crawled under the car to feel around the boot but I could not find any obvious tears or holes. The consistency of the grease is very thin and oily. I suspect I may have a grease failure and not a boot failure. If the grease breaks down and liquifies, it can seep out from the boot clamp.

That was my quick check lying on my back under the car. I need to jack it up, remove the wheel, and make a closer inspection.

 

@p_gill Paul, I saw on another forum that you greased the CV axle on your Volvo. Do you happen to remember if the outer CV joint and the inner plunger joint use the same type of grease? I understand that on some vehicles the outer CV joint uses grease that is lithium/moly based, while the inner tripod joint uses a different type of grease that does not contain moly and withstands the higher temps of nearby engine components. There are probably aftermarket CV boot kits that give you the same grease for both boots, but I wonder if that's correct for the LR2.

 

The grease appears to be the same, the kits are supposed to include two packages of grease, 375cc each. It's Nicrotec grease, the LR part number is STC3435.

 

Thanks for this additional detail. The genuine LR boot kit is LR003160. But I could not determine anything from the OEM listing about the grease included.

I'm going to pull the wheel and make a closer inspection as soon as it gets a little warmer outside.

 

Update: I decided to replace the CV boot clamp and see if that helps. It might have loosened with time, and taken together with the breakdown of the grease, resulted in the messy leak. A common repair solution is to replace the entire axle with an inexpensive aftermarket axle that is pre-greased and has all the boots attached (shop estimate ~$450). However, the durability of these aftermarket CV axles is hit or miss. And an OEM axle is $800, not including labor.

I purchased a CV boot replacement kit (GKN Lobro 305637) to get the included clamps and grease, which is what I needed. The original boot will remain on the axle since I'm not removing the axle. Note that while the boot appears to be rubber, it's actually made of thermoplastic which is less flexible but more durable than rubber.

The replacement clamp from the kit is a single-size, exact-fit ear clamp. Unlike worm clamps or spring clamps, these ear clamps are single use only and it's a destructive process to remove them. You can crimp them on with common snipper pliers, but the crimp is better with the special purpose ear clamp pliers that I got (Lisle 30800). I also got special-purpose CV clamp cutters (Astro Pneumatic 9403) to remove the old clamp as I figure I may be doing this again for the LR2 as well as my other high-mileage family cars. Both of these tools require two hands to use as the handles spread wide apart.

I cut off the old clamp and slipped the boot back to reveal the opening of the CV joint housing. After removing the liquified grease, I repacked the CV joint with fresh grease using my fingers to push in as much as I could. Now it was time to attach the new clamp.

Unfortunately, I could not pull the new clamp tight enough around the boot to get the little hook to engage, which is needed before crimping. It requires a lot of strength and dexterity. I watched some YouTube videos and this can be a challenging task even when you have the axle off the car on a bench. It's more difficult when the axle is still on the car with limited working room using only a jack stand. However, I anticipated I might have this problem, so "Plan B" was to attach an adjustable CV clamp (Belmetric) that has more slots than the single-size, exact-fit clamp. This went on smoothly and crimped well. Probably not as tight as the exact-fit clamp, but as good as I could do under the less-than-ideal circumstances.

The new clamp has been holding the boot well and has remained dry for almost a week, which included high-speed highway driving. If it starts leaking again, I have a couple more options including the use of a wider clamp and some gasket sealer on the boot.