Is this fluid/residue normal?

[Stavesacre21]

So I was just doing an oil change the other day, and I noticed BEFORE doing anything with the oil that I have some type of brownish fluid/residue that is coated pretty thick over a part connecting to the front diff. I'm not completely sure of the exact name of the part, but you can see that it connects to the wheels.







As you can see, the black part is completely coated in it, and silver cuppling coming out the side of it is almost stained brown from it. It's just as viscus as oil, so it's nothing that has just popped up from under the car.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? If so, is it normal? I was under the impression that everything visable should be dry.

Please let me know your thoughts, guys.

 

[oaklandopen]

my initial thoughts, if in fact it has the same characteristics of motor oil, is tha oil is dripping on it. But you're gonna have to look all around it to see

That is a picture of one of your cv joints, passenger side if I saw it correctly. This tells me that if its oil it may have been from accidentally missing the oil fill hole a little bit, since that's on the passenger side of the engine along with that output shaft
If it smells more like tranny fluid, look at your output shaft bearing right on the tranny case where the shaft meets and look around for a leak

I can tell you its not your cv joint with the problem, else you would have GREASE everywhere, not oil

Just check around the bay, wipe clean (or better yet spray brāk kleen all over it), and see if it comes back after a couple drives

 

[Stavesacre21]

Not a bad idea! I think i'll do that...wipe it dry and check again later. It's hard to tell the consistancy of it, as it is either a brown or a red color and very similar viscosity. I'm pretty anal-retentive about making sure I don't miss when i'm filling with oil, but who knows.

Thanks for the heads up...it's worth a shot. Appreciate your reply.