Name that fluid!!!

[mikecgolf]

OK,

96 328i convertible, 89K miles. manual trans.

Started noticing a small drop on the concrete near the center of the rear end in the morning.

The fluid is very thin, only slightly oily, basically colorless. It has a very strong sulphuric smell.

2 weeks ago the eccentric bolt came out of the left rear lower control arm, bottom of the wheel pulled away and broke or bent the control arm, had it replaced, same for the right one, a previous tow operator apparently hooked on these and damaged them.

Any suspects on these? did not notice the fluid until after the incident with the wheel coming off, fortunately I had just put it in reverse to go back and see what had fallen out from the car, (the eccentric bolt) when the wheel came loose.

[Manolito]

There are only three fluids back there - differential oil, gasoline, and battery acid. Four if you count the grease in the wheel bearings and CV joints.

Convertibles beat the hell out of their batteries because they use them as vibration dampeners. If you have the wrong battery, that is, not a battery made for an e36 convertible, it will loose likely lose acid and will fail quickly. Better take a look at your battery and battery box and make sure you don't have acid eating through the bottom of your car.

[mikecgolf]

yes, I thought about the battery with the sulphuric smell to the fluid, it has the correct BMW battery with all the vents and other lines coming off of it.

Thanks, not sure what other fluid could have that smell, I thought maybe some mixture of condensation, oil, coming from the exhaust, cat converter picking up the sulphuric smell, anyone heard of that?

Thanks all.


MC

[Jeron]

The Hypoid gear oil in the diff has a strong distinct smell. I would not call it sulfuric but maybe others would.

You need to get under there, find the drop and figure out where it is falling from.