What is this part? (picture incl)

I thought I smelled the faintest whiff of burnt oil today while driving. Didn't see anything at the gas station, but once I got home I smelled it again. I popped the engine cover and after a minute I could see whisps of smoke coming from this part. It looks like a spring/flange to hold the catalytic converter in place. Now, my real question is, what is over there that could leak on this part OR what is nearby that could be producing smoke instead.

The actual spring/flange assembly is not producing smoke on its own, so what's near there that's throwing off oil?
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I think if you go under the car with a flashlight you'll see where it's coming from.

 

I'd look closely at your axle's rubber cv boots for a first guess...

 

Having recently replaced the cats on my car, I can verify that that is indeed the spring-loaded bolt that attaches catalytic converter to the rest of exhaust mechanism.

 

flywheel grease ?

 

I can't get far enough under the car to know what I'm looking at, but there is black grease on some of the surrounding bits.

If it was flywheel grease - wouldn't it be further back? CV boots are the unknown at this point.

 

I should also mention tha I got the car back from its 30k mile engine-out service 9 days ago - so could it be related to that somehow? They checked my clutch - said it looked like new. I asked about the CVs, but was told they looked okay at that point. Probably doesn't take much to have them go bad, though. Any change looking at my clutch would cause a neighboring leak?

 

Maybe just leftover oil / penetrant from freeing up bolts? I used some on my exhaust fittings when doing the clutch, next few drives smelled stuff burning.

 

Was just under the car - I don't see anything on the underbody. If it was a CV boot, does it "sling" grease? I don't know where to look for it.

Looking at that picture closer, it looks like black goop on the hose to the upper right of the spring. I'm leaving for Dubai this week, so I'll probably have it towed from my driveway later this week. Would cracked CV boots make a noise?

 

Grease would "sling off" if there was a tear in a boot or if the large clamp popped off.

 

You don't have to tow a 348 over a cracked cv boot! Sure, you need to repair the problem, but I'd be hard-pressed to imagine why you couldn't simply drive it to the shop.

 

Fire? And, its not officially a brotherhood car - its an F355.

 

If you are seriously concerned about a car fire, then have professionals take care of the issue (i.e. tow it).

 

I had the same issue. I had a small tear in the CV boot. I bought a tube of sillicon caulk, the really good kind, and applied over the tear. Waited 30 minutes and it was good enough to get me home without slinging more grease everywhere. Replaced boot shortly thereafter. Luckily there was still a good supply of grease on the joint.