I was driving to work one day going down some windy hills to a clients house. When i got to the job and stepped out of my car i noticed a burning rubber smell and smoke pooring out of my front left wheel. When i looked underneath liquid was running down from the inside part of the wheel onto my tire. My brake fluid level hasnt gone down at all so i dont think its that. Im thinkin it may be my bearings or bearing seal. Although its not making a noise when i drive and when i jacked up the wheel it seemed to roll smooth. I did notice once the wheel was jacked up i tried to wiggle it side to side and it had the very slightest amount of play, very minuscule. I havent compared it to the other side which is pretty lame of me ive just been very buisy. Anyway im thinkin the bearings are going bad maybe and the friction is melting the grease causing smoke and a burning rubber smell and dripping perhaps? Ive been driving it around and no smoke since the windy hills but the smell persists and the liquid.

 

Another idea: an oil leak up top running down? Stuck brake overheating causing the rubber on the tire to get very hot?

Ya' better hope whatever is leaking, if it's a leak, does not ignite.

 

If it is your brakes it will it would smell almost like burnt clutch, and smoke would mean a locked up caliper and a bad pull to the left. I think rworegons comment is right on.. check for anything dripping on the rotor, braking will make the rotor hot but not smoke unless somthing gets on it.

 

i know my valve cover is leaking. i gotta take the wheel off and have a look the stuff leaking down the side of the wheel is blue

 

Blue? Hmm, rules out engine oil and diff. oil most likely. Wheel bearing grease, CV joint grease or axle grease may be blue, I suppose.

Keep us posted.

 

Probably a bad inner axle seal. Gear oil is leaking onto your wheel and hitting your brakes.

 

no question .. Inner axle seals ..
there should be NO movement , not even miniscule . (X that by 100 .. because of the size of tire your moving vrs. brg size)

when heated (as for a long drive)from a leaking seal diff lube can be thrown up by the tire -- to the brake pads/rotors , causing the "smoke" effect ..

you need an inner axle seal + bearing kit ..



.

 

thanks a lot slacker im so buisy tryin to get my car ready for smog i havent had a chance to even try to diagnose it. saved me some time thanks.

 

what does the fluid smell like? because each fluid and grease in a truck smells different.

 

Year and model of truck?

I've had my rear axle seal go out but I don't remember there being a smoking. The sign I saw was the gear oil all over the inner side of the tire.

Another time an add a leaf broke, separated from the leaf pack and shredded the sidewall of one of my rear tires, but I doubt that's your problem.

 

its a 1980 pickup with a 81 22r im pretty sure its gear oil and it only smoked one time when i was going down windy hills

 

just went outside to try to take my wheel off holy ˟˟˟˟ those nuts are on there tight think i popped a blood vessel... even if i could get them off with a cheater bar probly one of the nuts is a special round one with a engraving in it dont have the tool to get that one off... there is one on each wheel... so i went ahead and jacked up the other wheel to see if it had any play... it has even MORE play than the one thats leaking gear oil... can i do any really bad damage driving on this thing?


just realized how stupid it looks when i put... at the end of every sentence... hah...

 

i am having the same issue... my front left wheel is smoking after i take a drive of more than 10 minutes or so. there is no smell, the smoke is white and it seems to be coming from the inside of the wheel. any ideas?

 

thanks for the feedback, guys....i finally got a chance to get the wheel off and look at it...when i changed the brakes and rotors, i didnt tighten up the bolts on the calliper all the way....i was leaking brake fluid onto my rotor, that was causing the smoke....i felt kinda dumb when i found it.

 

this may be the cure for your smoking tire but do not discredit the side to side movement with your tires! This is a tale tale sign of extremely worn out wheel bearings, if and when one blows apart you will likely have that tire lock up on you! Pray your not doing 55mph when this happens, or fix it now and live to fight another day.