When I say this thing had a tiny hole...it was pretty small. The hole itself was on the first pleat facing towards the wheel. Just on the first vertical surface from the outer clamp. You could *MAYBE* fit the head of a #1 screwdriver through the slit, so this was in no way a "tear". In fact, I actually caused it by accidentally pressing on it with the ratchet when I was removing the first E-14 bolt on the hub, so it was more of a compression wound.
So, since it was so small, it was like a friggin COTTON CANDY MACHINE in there. :freak3: The only difference was I was spinning thin gray grease. :yawn:
When the boot came off, I'd say I had lost about 1/2 of the grease. Otherwise, it was spotless in there, so I just did the boot.
Dunno about your mech letting it go like that, but I could see the grease beginning to creep towards the hub and rotor and it was already globbed onto the caliper a bit. I used about a half a roll of paper towels cleaning the crap.
AJ