Does this look bad?

Hi everyone, it's been a minute since I've been here.

As a recap, my '99 wrangler has sat unused since approximately July 2024. My mechanic has proven untrustworthy, so I want to try to get it running myself. I have no experience working on cars, but enjoy general appliance repair and plumbing work I do for family and friends, so I'm excited to learn.

I'd posted on here a while back, and we decided I shouldn't over think it, just get a new battery, put in fresh gas, see if it starts, and give it an oil change.

A few family emergencies later, and here I am ready to get back at it. While trying to familiarize myself with the underside of my Jeep, I noticed things that look potentially broken/rusted/leaky and possibly not good. I have never looked under my jeep before (total newbie) so I don't know what it's supposed to look like, and can't even name the parts I'm looking at.

It's around where the tires attach, I see what looks like excessive oil build up, random rust spots on most things, and then in the top middle of the huge spring looking things (is it the shocks?) a roundish part looks browned/rusted and maybe cracked. Like I said, I have no idea what I'm looking at.

I'm attaching some pictures, if anyone could tell me what I'm looking at and if it's normal or concerning, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

Assuming no motor oil or PS fluid is dripping from above I'd spend some time inspecting leaky shocks, leaky steering stabilizer, BJs on the knuckle/drag link, tie rod etc. Based on the pics the rust is mostly surface-type but the Jeep probably needs some front suspension maintenance. Depending upon your skill set most of these suspension pieces can be a DIY project.

 

All those "oiled" areas are just from greasing the tie rods ends and ball joints. Some of that almost always occurs but it usually is much more confined. Makes one wonder what was being used for grease. The best way to check front axle pieces is to get it off the ground (on jack stands), get under there, and start checking all the steering linkage, draglink, and ball joints for movement that shouldn't be there. None of that should have any slop in it. Also take a close look at the front of the lower passenger side control arm. That sort of appears to have taken a pretty good hit at some point but if it isn't causing problems with the bushing, probably nothing to worry about.

 

Thanks, both of you, for pointing me in the right direction. A lot of my trouble is not knowing where to start. These sound like great things to check out!