Help needed

[ozspearo]

Hi all,

I had the car (02 S, 46k miles) on the hoist today to do an oil change so decided to have a good look around underneath for the first time since buying it 6 months ago. With my very limited knowledge I was mainly looking for the obvious. I found two things of concern;

1) The RMS appears to have a very slight leak, not enough for it to be leaving oil on the garage floor, but the area around the RMS has oil on it where it has seeped out. I've read the multitude of posts on this but my question is..how much is too much? Is this small amount of oil telling me it's about to get very bad, or is it something that could go for years without getting worse?

2) I don't know what they're called (maybe drive axle or drive shaft boot?) but the rubber boots just inboard of the rear wheels are both badly split. I know this is not good but I want to know if the boots can be replaced or do I have to replace the whole drive axle? (For those with a Bentley manual the boot is shown clearly in the last photo on page 42-4).

I have pics of both problems but can't figure out how to attach them to this post. I can email them if anyone thinks they might help in giving some advice.

Thanks in advance.

-Scott