Where Might My Engine Be Leaking Oil From.....?

[Guest MarchHare]

G reg 1.9 GTI, just bought it, needless to say vendor failed to mention oil leak!

 

Seems to be leaking from gearbox side and possibly higher up (i.e. probably not sump).

 

Any thoughts on what might be the source?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Crank seal/cam seal/cam cover/distributor seal

 

You'll have to track it down.

[snooks 5]

Possibly crank seal, very hard to say where a leak is without taking a look for your self.

[Guest MarchHare]

Cheers, I've booked it into a local garage for them to have a closer look, just wanted to prepare myself for their potential diagnosis. Time to get the Haynes manual out and do a bit of reading!

[chocolate_o_brian 0]

Sounds daft, but is the oil filter tight with the rubber seal on it? What about oil breather hoses? Possibly a cracked one? I had a leak above the sump and it ended up being a slightly loose filter seeping slightly, and a cracked oil breather hose which I replaced.

[Guest MarchHare]

The leak seems to be from the back of the engine, nearside and nearer to the top than the bottom, roughly below the point where the distributor joins to the block and perhaps 5 or 6 inches down from the dizzy on the back of the engine (roughly at the joint of gearbox and engine?). Still trying to work out what all the bits are, not worked on a transverse engine before!

[Mikey S 29 1 Cars]

The leak seems to be from the back of the engine, nearside and nearer to the top than the bottom, roughly below the point where the distributor joins to the block and perhaps 5 or 6 inches down from the dizzy on the back of the engine (roughly at the joint of gearbox and engine?). Still trying to work out what all the bits are, not worked on a transverse engine before!

 

from roughly where your describing, it sounds like the headgasket is leaking.

[Roman 0]

posible dipstick(check bottom side near the block)

[McDude 33]

posible dipstick(check bottom side near the block)

Or near the top of the tube, they crack at the point where the dipstick tube is attached to the cylinder head.

 

Mine did this - oil went everywhere. Was a pig to work out.

[Guest MarchHare]

Thanks for the suggestions, I really hope its a split pipe or something cheap but I suspect not! I will try to clean up the back of the block and get a clearer idea of the source. Just need to get it out of the garage and degreased. Not really an evening job so will probably have to wait until the week end.

[kyepan 291]

where you mentioned also sounded like the distributor o ring, costs about 2 pounds, give the area a good scrub with some cloth with petrol on, or degreaser until it's really clean then run the engine and have a look, you should be able to trace it.

 

changing the dizzy o ring takes 5 mins, no need to get fleeced by a garage.

 

also, if its crank oil seal, then it's box off, which takes about a day if you're new, plus a second person would help to put the box back on, you'll need a few other bits like gear oil (unless you have something very clean to put it in. and you'll probably need new hub nuts as the driveshafts will have to come out. The seal itself takes about five minutes to change, but it's behind the clutch and flywheel.

 

good luck,

Edited February 3, 2009 by kyepan

[Alteran 1]

I had the same leak in about the same area you're describing when i recently bought a 1.6 Gti. As kyepan says, it was simply the distributor O 'ring gone hard and not providing a tight seal. The mess was unreal, it had obviously been leaking for a while and completely covered the gearbox, sump and subframe! You need to pressure wash the oil off and look for a leak before taking things apart.

[Arahan 4]

yep another vote for dizzy o ring, same symptoms as mine had and afer changing it it went away!