Oil Leak

I've just noticed that my normally oil tight 850 2.5 20V is now leaking oil. After 135000 miles I guess it's not to be un expected.

I've only given it a cursury glance but it seems to be coming from the back bottom of the block, from the right hand side (if you are looking at the car from the front).

I'm just wondering if any of you guys know of a common problem, or could it get complicated??

Thanks.


John.

[Simon Linton]

A trip underneath is called for to see where the oil is coming from.

Quantities would also be helpful - a dribble is usually nothing to worry about until it gets worse.

As far as I can tell it's coming from the back right of the engine (as viewed from the front) The oil is then sprayed back underneath the car. It seems to be wet next to the sump (which is dry) but until I have a proper look I'm not exactly sure where. It's no pouring out and all my levels are fine, but it's more than just an occaional drip. There's a 8cm square patch of oil on the ground just from driving to work this morning. I'll get under tonight and see.

Right, now I've spent some time underneath.........

There's bags of oil coming from where the auto gear box is attatched to the engine. This is being sprayed around by the fixed part of the drive shaft.

Having compared the viscosity of the oil underneath with engine oil and automatic gear box oil it would appear that it's engine oil, although looking at the leak it seems like it's coming from the gear box.

There is now a significant amount of oil leaking.

Hmph.

It seems to me that it's the crankshaft end seal.

Am I right??

Am I going to have to re-mortgage?

Just a quick note, if it's oil from the gearbox it should be a colour, probably red.

Hope this helps a bit

Si

Thanks,

It's brown, it's oil, it's bad!

[Simon Linton]

Someone has just posted about oil seals in that area and no, it's not cheap - sorry.

But get it fixed pronto before something else goes expensively wrong.