Blown strut

[KentState]

It's late in the day so don't have time to fully diagnose myself, but it looks like the passenger side strut blew on wife's car. She noticed the passenger side making a thumping sound when leaving the store yesterday.

This evening, we noticed a small amount of oil both in front and behind the tire and a good amount of oil sprayed around the wheel liner and some sprayed down the side of the car. Not seeing anything under the hood itself. The engine oil level is spot on and nothing leaking that I can see. When a strut blows, do they cause that big of a mess? Is the fluid used typically look like engine oil?

 

[tracerbullet]

I've never seen it spray around, but I have had struts leak and it does look dark and somewhat like engine oil. However what I saw had picked up dirt from the road and may have been lighter when it came out.

The clunking sound does also seem to point to a strut.

 

[HarryLui]

There are several ways struts/shocks can fail. They can leak, stop dampening or they will allow excessive re-bounce. They usually use oil with light color.