As the title says, there's some sort of sensor or something (see pictures) that has torn into the driver side inner CV boot. It looks to me like the pivoting mount for whatever it is broke and caused the thing to move into the CV boot, causing a small tear and shooting fluid all over. I just put the car on 4 jackstands to begin swapping over the new suspension components I had picked up (new dampers, springs, camber plates, rear control arms) when I noticed the fluid all over. The axle hasn't been making any particular noises that would make me think it has a problem, so I think I can get away with just rebooting the inner CV boot (am I right in assuming this?). The car only has about 50k miles at this point.

My main concern is that thing having collided with the boot in the first place. What is it and how can I prevent that from crashing into the boot in the future? I'm the definition of a YouTube mechanic/hobby car enthusiast, so I admit that I don't know much and learn by doing. I appreciate all the help in advance!


unidentified square sensor object thing making contact with inner cv boot



this joint seems to have tilted/broken off axis and moved the part into the boot

 

Front driver side body level/tilt sensor. It bolts into the control arm,

 

That looks like the leveling sensor for the xenon headlights. If you have xenon’s there should be one on the drivers side rear upper control arm, too.

 

Thanks guys! Does anyone have a picture of theirs or a diagram that shows the correct position it should be in? I've been searching for over an hour and can't find any. Seems like a pretty weird thing to just fail and ram into the cv boot...

 

Alright so I found this diagram online and it looks like my front level sensor is mounted properly and the arms aren't broken at all. This begs the question: Why is it so close to the inner CV boot? I just re-booted the inner boot and had a difficult time adjusting the boot to make sure the sensor wouldn't cut into it again. As it sits, the sensor is firmly pushing against the inner CV boot. Am I missing something? I don't want to have to replace the boot again - getting the axle out the first time around was a huge pain.

 

Just because the bolts is still securing the bracket for the sensor and arm doesn't mean everything is shipshape. Our Mini's are tiny bundles of joy that is tightly packaged. I suspect one or more of the brackets are bent. The plastic arms might also be deformed from perpetually under stress.

 

Bundles of joy indeed... you were right on the money. After I made my post, I probed around the inner CV boot area and noticed the metal mount that holds the sensor was slightly tilting towards the boot. I bent it back (a lot easier to bend that metal than one would assume) and it looks like there's enough safe clearance. I'm guessing the previous owner hit a pothole or something and that caused the mount to bend that way. Haven't had the car for too long, but I've worked on it more than I've driven it haha.

 

Bundle of joy when all is well and driving it. Basket of misery when something goes wrong to bust the knuckles to fix it.