Does replication with SSL encryption work on MySQL 5.5?
To use SSL for encrypting the transfer of the binary log required during replication, both the master and the slave must support SSL network connections. If either host does not support SSL connections (because it has not been compiled or configured for SSL), replication through an SSL connection is not possible.

Setting up replication using an SSL connection is similar to setting up a server and client using SSL. You must obtain (or create) a suitable security certificate that you can use on the master, and a similar certificate (from the same certificate authority) on each slave.

For more information on setting up a server and client for SSL connectivity refer this link

Please follow the steps mentioned here:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/replication-solutions-ssl.html

I was searching in bugs.mysql.com related to MySQL 5.5 but there is nothing reported w.r.t "replication with SSL" for v5.5.
You can mention exact error message here for analysis.