I've noticed a slight burned smell on the truck since I got in November but never anything on the ground under the truck...so I just chalked it up to being old. When I was driving around the other day I saw smoke coming from under the driver side near the door. It sent me on a search for the source. I was digging around with the flash light and noticed a few things but no idea what I'm dealing with.
On the driver side I found red fluid with "medium" viscosity (honestly not sure if the viscosity is a matter of other gunk though) on the triangular exhaust connection to the header (red arrow below). I sprayed it with break clean to try and watch for the source. I watched for a few minutes with no luck but after driving around a bit I saw a new drip but still no clue where it's coming from. ATF, power stearing and radiator are all proper fluid levels. Any idea/suggestions on how to further diagnose?
I decided to move to the passenger side to try and see if there was something on that side. Found it pretty gunky on the power steering pulley and the hoses leading to it. Here again I break cleaned much of the area to try and check for leaks. Decided to get OCD and took off the skid plates to find the sway bar had a bunch of oil on it as well. So more break clean! With all cleaned up I watched for a while with everything off, nothing dripped. So started the truck. A bit of smoke came out of the area near the bolt closest to the firewall (picture below). It stopped after running a few minutes so assumed it was junk I knocked when cleaning. Drove it around a bit and then checked and small amount of consistent smoke was back. So I assume I have an oil leak (levels are fine though) and again, no idea where. Where else can/should I be looking?
I'm going to give it a bit more research but just not sure where to go from here. The valve cover gasket and steering rack were replaced by Duggy's when I picked it up as part of the initial base lining. I'm hoping to fix this myself (with some help of the great minds of Mud) but just not sure where to go from here.
Thanks in advance.
On the driver side I found red fluid with "medium" viscosity (honestly not sure if the viscosity is a matter of other gunk though) on the triangular exhaust connection to the header (red arrow below). I sprayed it with break clean to try and watch for the source. I watched for a few minutes with no luck but after driving around a bit I saw a new drip but still no clue where it's coming from. ATF, power stearing and radiator are all proper fluid levels. Any idea/suggestions on how to further diagnose?
I decided to move to the passenger side to try and see if there was something on that side. Found it pretty gunky on the power steering pulley and the hoses leading to it. Here again I break cleaned much of the area to try and check for leaks. Decided to get OCD and took off the skid plates to find the sway bar had a bunch of oil on it as well. So more break clean! With all cleaned up I watched for a while with everything off, nothing dripped. So started the truck. A bit of smoke came out of the area near the bolt closest to the firewall (picture below). It stopped after running a few minutes so assumed it was junk I knocked when cleaning. Drove it around a bit and then checked and small amount of consistent smoke was back. So I assume I have an oil leak (levels are fine though) and again, no idea where. Where else can/should I be looking?
I'm going to give it a bit more research but just not sure where to go from here. The valve cover gasket and steering rack were replaced by Duggy's when I picked it up as part of the initial base lining. I'm hoping to fix this myself (with some help of the great minds of Mud) but just not sure where to go from here.
Thanks in advance.
