02 I35 i recently noticed alot of fluid has drenched my pass side lower control arm but i dont know what type of fluid it is. It looks like oil but does not smell like it. Where else could the leak be coming from. Its like a brownish color and its all over the control arm so the bushings are completly shot, now it seems as if my front end is falling apart. going over bumps i hear the clicking or clunk noise and my steering is very sloppy to the right. If i hit a bump the wheel may jump or move and i can feel it. Also I have wheel hop when turning the wheel to the far right or left while driving slowly.

 

Looks like it's HP power steering hose season.

 

Could be PS hose but you'd probably notice a loss in the reservoir.
Could be oil migrating down from the rear valve cover or from the front main.
I'd lift the front as high as you can safely get it and crawl under it with a flashlight. Follow the oil up to it's highest point. Don't forget to pull back the cover on the PS hose.

A lot of people don't realize how much more can be seen with a flashlight even in full daylight.

Looks like you'll be needing some suspension work. I'd make certain the oil leak was fixed and cleaned up before replacing any suspension parts. Take a hard look at it and replace everything at once since you'll need an alignment after the work. No need to pay for repeated alignments.

 

I did notice a small drop in power steering fluid so i added more ps fluid. If the main seal is behind the crankshaft pulley then that area looks to be dry. I do know that the lower oil pan gasket has been seeping for months now. I dont know if its gotten worse.

 

I would definitely check the PS hose then. Pull the insulation back, from the lower side, and see if it's wet.

It's strange for the oil pan to leak unless it's been off before. It's not a big deal to fix. Just get some high quality RTV like HondaBond or Permatex Black. I personally stick with HondaBond on my own car.

 

I didn't know the oil pans on these cars were held together with RTV. Thought that was only an older Honda thing. It's common on those cars for the pans to leak.

 

OK gonna check the lower part of the powersteering hose tomarro. But i did jack up the pass side of the car to adjust the outer tie rod because when i installed the inner tie rod the other day( which i never did before) the alignment and steering was all out of spec. But i did notice that the main seal behind the crank pulley is indeed leaking oil, not alot to be worried about but it is visible so im def gonna have to take care of that most likely at a shop. I do have some black permatex gasket maker that i havent used yet, but will use it when i replace the rear valve cover gasket.

 

I had something similar happening with my car, was seeing lots of oil where the bottom splash guards are, turned out the front valve cover was leaking, I had a brand new one put in like a month ago but my mechanic said, looks like a couple of the screws came slightly loose so he tightened them up. Will keep an eye on it going forward but you could be experiencing something similar. Ill post a pic of it later

 

this seal is actually pretty easy to replace if you want to make it a diy project

 

How easy is it, Ive never taken a crank pulley off before so i dont want to mess anything up. Ive replaced an axle seal, and do have access to power tools. What size is the crank bolt?

 

don't remember the size of the bolt, but this is mostly the process:

take off wheel/splash guard for access
loosen locking nut on end of tensioner
loosen top nut of tensioner to remove belt
last is the crank pulley nut, either put a impact gun on it or do the trick where you put a breaker on it and bump the starter to free it

and there you have it. next just pull off the old seal with pliers and put the new one in. put back together in the previous order. i've never done an axle seal but i imagine it is slightly more complicated

 

sounds pretty straight forward and simple, I might give it a try lol. Yeah the axle seal requires removing the cv joint from the transmission, and installing the axle and seal without damaging it.

 

You'll also have to remove the PS belt since it runs on the main pulley too. The tensioner for that is kind of a pain to figure out and reach but it's doable. It's a good time to change the belt since this one often gets neglected.

If you can do the axle seal you can do this. I haven't done the trick with the starter but it seems just fine if you can't get the nut off. On my 00 I had to break out the 3/4" impact because it was just laughing at the 1/2" MAC impact.