Leaking? where the drive shaft goes into the 'engine'

[JBC27]

Bit out of my depth here. Been getting some unpleasant squealing, screetching, grinding noises from under the car after driving it on twisty country roads.

Had a similar noise minus the grinding on my 1.4 which turned out to be the n/s cv joint lacking any grease. Having had the car on a ramp today the boots are fine. One thing I noticed is as in the picture. There is something wet/leaking on the passenger side where the drive shaft comes out the engine. All dry on the drivers side so does anyone know if this is normal or I need a new driveshaft or something nice and cheap needs replacing. Also while on the ramp it emerged that the track rod is bent (previous owner damage) wondering if this has contributed to whatever is going on.

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[bmh.01]

The smack its taken on that side has probably damaged the driveshaft if not the gearbox. Is there any play in the shaft? If you do change it remember to drain the gearbox oil first as thats a wet cv joint on that side.

 

[JBC27]

thanks for the advice. I've not noticed any problems chnaging gear etc so hopefully the gearbox is ok. Will get under the car and check the drive shaft asap.

Cheers for the heads up on the wet cv joint thing as well as I wouldn't have thought about that. This is probably going to end up at a garage though as it's not anything i've mucked about with before and haven't got a drive to plonk the car on and take my time.