Oil Leak

Boothby Coggles · December 19, 2008

This morning when I went out I noticed an oil patch, about 6-8"" wide, on the drive under where the car had been standing overnight. The oil was clear in colour.

When I came back I parked the car in a different position and about 2 hours later when I checked again there was a patch about 3" across. There appears to be oil on the underside of the car behind more or less where the engine is. This makes me think that its the gearbox rather than the sump.

I went down to Market Harborough yesterday and had to go over some speed humps, (slowly). I don't for one minute think that I bottomed the car.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems with leaks?

I've booked it in to Lexus Hull for Monday morning to see what the problem is. Only thing is it's just under 50 miles. As I don't know how long the leak might have been there I don't know how much oil might have leaked.

Am I likely to cause/suffer any problems on the way there?

Boothby Coggles · December 24, 2008

UPDATE (Just to finish it off)

On Saturday my son in law had the car on a ramp while he was at work and found that the leak was coming from the input shaft seal and was producing a small drip every 2 seconds or so. There were traces of oil on the underside along the car and towards the rear end which indicated that the leak had been there for some time. There was also some indication that there could be oil contamination of the clutch. He thought it a bad idea to drive it the 50 or so miles to Hull.

On Monday morning I rang Hull & let them know this & they advised me to get Lexus Assist to bring it over to them. So later in the day it was driven off on the back of a breakdown and is now at Hull for sorting out.

I had a modified selector fork fitted by Hull in late September, so the problem must have originated then, as there had been no problem before that.

My son in law thinks that it was due to the fitting of a fault seal, or that the box was re-assembled properly

after the fork was fitted.

I must say that Lexus Assist, (the RAC by another name) were very good and sorted everything pretty efficiently, and by lunchtime I had a rental car (VW Passat) under the warranty.

Probably be early next week before I get my car back.

dazz32 · December 24, 2008

That good at least you know what the problem is and it kinda puts your mind at rest..... ;)

Boothby Coggles · December 24, 2008

That good at least you know what the problem is and it kinda puts your mind at rest..... ;)

Absolutely Dazz. Glad I didn't try to drive it to Hull, might never have got there . Haven't heard anything as yet back from them as yet, but no doubt they are on a half day today.

Boothby Coggles · January 11, 2009

I need to add more to this unfortunately :( .

I got the car back after Christmas & the oil leak seems to have been fixed ok, but now have "another" problem with the gearbox. The dealer says they've fitted, (under warranty), a new seal to the input shaft but, needless to say, they didn't admit that the old one had been damaged or fitted incorrectly.

During this cold spell, when using the car first thing in the morning 1st & 2nd gear have been very difficult to change between until the car has been driven for 10 or 15 minutes and things have warmed up. It's not just a matter of being "notchy" etc, but I need to use a fair amount of brute force to get up & down between 1st & 2nd. It's so hard that there's no way that my wife could do it.

This morning, although it had been pretty cold overnight, it was about 6 deg. but I still found a change from 3rd to 2nd harder than usual.

The problem didn't exist before September when I had the modified selector fork fitted to 3rd, and certainly not last winter. In October or November this year I had this problem for a couple of days when we had a short cold snap, but it had been ok until the latest one.

It's been suggested to me that, when the box was re-assembled after the fork was fitted, that the 1st/2nd synchro wasn't set up correctly.

Has anyone any experience of a similar problem with 1st & 2nd on a 220d box?

I'm obviously going to get it looked at, but is it worth taking it back to the dealer that fitted the selector, or take it to another one for someone else to have a go? I'm favouring either Derby or Nottingham, as they're within fairly easy reach.