Thread: Shock/Strut Oil

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Not a hot rod question, just a Dad trying to help his daughter. Her 2019 Yukon was stinking to high heaven, giving her headaches so she took it back to the dealer who found that her right front strut had blown, spraying oil which was dripping on the exhaust. Replaced the strut, cleaned around the exhaust and sent it home. The stench came back, not all the time, but very strong so it went back to the dealer with the understanding she had to have a loaner and didn't want it back until it didn't stink.

They kept it 4 days, saying that they had found that the oil had not just gone down, but had sprayed up in the wheel well, soaking sound deadening material there which they replaced. That was a week ago, and it's going back to the dealer Monday for another try. The stench is not consistent, and I believe came back as our ambient got into the 70's for a couple of days this week.

Any ideas? I told her to tell the general manager "My Dad says that it's Truck Month at Ford....."

When we used to race dirt bikes, we used PJ1 Foam Filter Cleaner to clean the air filter - sometimes between each moto if thing were really dirty. This stuff cuts through all kinds of dirt, oil and grease and it has a not unpleasant smell. It evaporates almost immediately. Don't know if it would work but might be worth testing on a small spot to see if it will dissolve the residue from the MagneRide strut oil.

Thanks Glenn. That's all I can think of too, a solvent to dissolve the oil and flush it away. I think at this point the guys in the shop don't know where it sprayed, thus where to focus their cleaning. They did the normal, thinking it had oozed out and dripped, but I'm thinking that it may have sprayed out into the fan air stream and gotten into the hood liner and other absorbent materials under the hood. Kind of like squashing a skunk, the oil goes everywhere!

A follow-up to close the loop! The Yukon went back to the shop on Monday this week. The odor was found to be coming from the front differential vent, overheated gear lube! An oil sample was full of metal, so they pulled the front diff, took it apart and found that the adjustor locks had slipped, removing all backlash from the gears and chewing up the pinion gear while destroying the bearings and ring gear. The blown strut was coincidental, but extremely fortunate! All new parts in the differential, hopefully with the adjustor locks staked, and the stink should be gone.

Thanks for the update.. for us completists.. interesting (to me) is how they couldn't tell the difference between smelling hydraulic oil from a shock versus differential oils. Any of us knows what a hypoid oil smells like!! There is nothing else like it that I know of. Must of been the only "old timer" in that shop who found the real issue! LOL.

Originally Posted by 34_40

Thanks for the update.. for us completists.. interesting (to me) is how they couldn't tell the difference between smelling hydraulic oil from a shock versus differential oils. Any of us knows what a hypoid oil smells like!! There is nothing else like it that I know of. Must of been the only "old timer" in that shop who found the real issue! LOL.

In their defense, the initial gripe was the stench and they found a strut blown with oil sprayed all over. When it came back, they said, "Must not have got all of the oil...." Third time they found the old guy....

Originally Posted by rspears

In their defense, the initial gripe was the stench and they found a strut blown with oil sprayed all over. When it came back, they said, "Must not have got all of the oil...." Third time they found the old guy....

So "they" saw and repaired a leaky shock and called it good. But they couldn't smell the gear oil? I know you cannot answer the question, don't try. Maybe it wasn't "smelly" those other times? No matter, somehow it just doesn't equate in my head.

Yeah, Lauren says that the aroma wasn't consistent. I'm guessing that when it got hot after some miles it would emit the smell from the vent, but when it cooled the aroma would be gone? Hard to say for sure, but I'm happy that the problem was found without a catastrophic failure an an inopportune moment! The case is closed.

It's amazing what vapors will get pulled into the cowls on newer vehicles these days. We had a similar issue with a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia but it was blow by from the engine. It took us 15 months to get Cummins to warranty it. The truck was using 3 gallons of oil in between oil changes. The problem was no one was writing it up or documenting the oil consumption. We had to document the oil usage for a year before they would even talk to us. Luckily our company has a warranty department and they fought cummins. Cummins was just trying to time us out on our warranty. Un freaking believable....

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