Right, so the little polo has an oil leak. Small drops at the moment, but I don't wanna leave it incase it get's drastically worse. Wanna knock it on the head ASAP.

Where would you start checking? I'm sure it's not the oil pressure switch (this time!)

It's just been in for MOT, so could it be that the oil filters been knocked or am I being an idiot?

Edited 18 August, 201115 yr by bigukg

Cheers for that. Had another look earlier. Checked all the breather pipe etc as some said high oil pressure might cause leaks (and I did have an oil pressure swtich go a few months back). All seemed ok, so I left the engine running a bit and squeezed underneath to take a look.

What I think is the bell housing (smooth rounded corners as opposed to right angles?) on the bottom of the engine is absolutely f*cking soaked with thick oil. So straight away I thought it could be gearbox oil. I phoned my local garage and a mate there said it's a common problem with them so it probably was the gearbox. I didn't realise the scale of it until I typed it into google!

So it'll go into the garage on Saturday for them to have a look. I might ask them to top it up with oil too while it's there!!

Going to be expensive though me thinks?!?

Going to check the gearbox code to see if it's the dreaded DUU which are prone to go. But most have gone between 30k and 80k miles. My Polo, which is a 6n2 1.4 16v SE, has done just over 114k iirc so it's a "late starter" if it is that!!!

Questions!

Will this be expensive to have fixed if I need to have the gearbox recon'd?

Should I worry about the gearbox oil level now or will it be OK till Saturday?

I'll try mate but it's well merky out there now! Think it's gonna piss hard any minute to be fair.

Pretty sure its gearbox oil now though, just because of how thick it was. Might go "round the houses" a bit on the way home, in the hopes the oil will thin out a bit and I can see how much of a serious problem I've got.

Doesn't seem to be a particularly major leak, so assume I'll be good until the weekend. Found this list of things to look out for though, so if any pop up I'll stop driving it!

1. The transmission "falls out of gear" when making sharp turns, fast stops

or starts.

2. Delayed engagement into Drive and/or Reverse, especially when cold.

3. The engine "races" between shifts.

I guess number 3 means the clutch slipping?

Could be rear crank seal leaking and over time with grit and sludge sticking to the oil everywhere makes it look thick. Ciould also be sump gasket, gearbox input shaft seal, diff seal (you said the rounded bit of the gearbox was it)?

Yeah there is a rounded bit underneath which looks out of place (because it looks plastic and rounded).

I'm so sh!te at this......Sorry!

As suggested above, just clean it down by whatever means you have ( a petrol soaked rag, gunk/jizer, carb cleaner) avoid steam cleaning or pressure washing unless you know which bits to keep dry!

Once you have it clean, run it round for a day or two and see where the oil is leaking from.

Generally, if the oil which is leaking looks black(ish), then it is from the engine, if it is clean looking, it is gearoil. Once the leaked oil is mixed with road dirt, it will look 'thick' regardless of where it has come from.

If you suspect that it might be gearoil, it would be wise to check the level and top it up if required before you drive it too far.

Regards.

Thanks for your replies, appreciate it. I'm going to take it to a garage tomorrow (where I got the MOT in the end) because I know one of the blokes that works there quite well, so he said he'd take a look. If he can't diagnose it, I'll give it a good clean, drive it for a couple of days and see whats what then.

The oil looks a golden sort of colour, and thick although it doesn't seem full of dirt and grit...... The rounded bit I was talking about I tried to get some pictures of yesterday (I'll try and upload some later). But that "rounded" part I mentioned before has a big silver bolt going into it on one side (the back iirc) so I dont' know if that helps at all!

As for driving it - from here to the garage tomorrow I've got about 15 miles to cover, so I think it'll be OK. Got no symptoms of low gearbox oil at the moment so fingers crossed. Going to make sure the oil is topped up tomorrow too, and out of interest I'll check my engine oil level later and compare it to a couple of days ago to see if it's gone down any or not.

Edited 19 August, 201115 yr by bigukg

Thats the sump :)

Cool - so what does that mean?

Could it still be the gearbox then?

Thanks mate, going to try and have another look in a min but it's a b*gger to get too. At work so it's difficult.

Just went out on my break to have a look and it's a joke! The grounds all wet still where it's rained and I can't see a bloody thing. Tried to have a look at the code on the gearbox out of interest but can't see that either (will need a torch I think to shed some light on it!).

So I'll update this tomorrow and let you know what the garage says!

Wish me luck and let it not be a new gearbox or anything else as serious that's needed to sort it!

Looked at the car at home on my lunch, at the gearbox AND sump, they both look shitted up with oil grit and dirt so I'm buggered if I know where it's actually coming from......

I hatched a plan to leave the engine running for a while when I got back to work, so that when it dripped on the car park, I'd see which it dripped off..... Left it running 15mins after a mile drive and took a look. Not one drop of oil or anything else on the ground. Typical!!!!!

Still, atleast I know it's not TOO serious a leak or it would have dropped something.........

(I feel like this is turning into a blog.....! )

UPDATE: Been to the garage, there is a small engine oil leak at the breather unit and the seal on the gearbox where the rod goes in is leaking a bit.

He's given me some engine oil stop leak to try and stop the engine oil leak (although I don't think it's too serious).

They didn't check the gearbox oil because they said it wasn't that bad a leak at all but they could if I took it back another day - so I'm avoiding driving it now until I can get the level checked! Don't want a fucked gearbox!

Anyone else has problems with leaky gearbox seals??? Had them replaced?

I'm tempted to just get the oil level topped up, and see how it goes. Apparently you can have the seal replaced 2 or 3 times but it might still leak so I'm not sure there's any point. The seal looks almost brand new, and the mechanic said its been changed fairly recently anyway (Only had the car since March) so I don't think it's too serious?

Anyway, cheers for replies all.