Gear oil leak

[Jp-oh]

On the drive home from work today I made a few stops and after getting back in from the last one I could smell a nice foul stink. Parked the car in the car hole and came back out about 15-20 mins later and could still smell the foul stench and so looked under the car. Their seems to be an oil leak at the center front of the engine and it is stinky. I had to take off and couldn't have a really good look. Any preliminary guesses as to how FUBARed I am?

Car was shifting fine. No leaks like this ever before. No recent service.

[timmy2]

Could just be coming out of the breather. Make sure it is facing the right direction.

[Jp-oh]

Would that be something that could be moved by say deep snow? Why would oil all of a sudden leak out of the breather out of the blue?

Thanks.

[RWebb]

maybe - I'd worry that deep snow caused snow (water) to get inside the trans...

VW Syncros have tubes attached to the vent to prevent mud, snow etc. from getting in via the vent. I dunno if rally 911 had tubes added or not.

[Matt Monson]

I would be more concerned that it's got a blown mainshaft seal. A breather leak would come down the side by the CVs. The mainshaft is right where it mates to the clutch.

[aj88cab]

When you say "center front of the engine" do you mean between the engine & trans, or at the end of the transmission (towards front of car)? If the later, it might be a shift rod oil seal which is not too bad compared to the transmission drive shaft seal as mentioned above.

[Jp-oh]

Between engine and tranny. How would I check the breather?

[Jp-oh]

I'm not sure if this link works from my iPhone but here's a shot of the leak. The wet bits on the exhaust is not water.

[VMAX1]

Check your engine oil, hole in the oil cooler? I had forgot to put a shift shaft seal, after I had the engine out and damaged it, and would leak at hard turns and fast braking. Check tranny fluid, too.

[Jp-oh]

It's for certain tranny fluid from the smell. I'm not sure how much it's lost. From the point I smelled it to when it was parked was about 2-3 kms. I doubt I should be driving it too much but I'd at least like to get it to a shop. Fn thing.

Here is another pic. Do these pics tell us anything?

[timmy2]

You could crawl under there and remove the fill plug on the side of the tranny and check for fluid. If no fluid comes out stick your pinky finger in there to see if it gets wet. Then you would know it is almost full.

[RWebb]

clean it all up - then see if you can tell where the gear oil is leaking from

now, how old IS the gear oil - if your answer is "I dunno" or "over 5 years" then just drain it and refill with Swepco or something known to be good; or refill with a 'normal' gear oil then run for a while and drain, then go to Swepo (that will flush it out, sorta)

you can also get a lab to test the old oil - see what the water content is

also, look in the tunnel and tell us what you find there

[snbush67]

The vent tube is on top, depending on the size of your arms you may be able to bear hug the tranny and feel to see if the vent is oriented properly. If not you can turn it with a wrench. It isn't likely but could have possible worked loose a bit.

[Jp-oh]

If it was a main shaft seal would it not affect drivability by messily oiling up the clutch, flywheel etc?

[snbush67]

From other thread

Originally Posted by tonythetarga

trans is on the side. the plug will be on the driver side in front of the axles. The vent is on the top of the trans. OH and the case...its that big silver thingy that holds all the gears and stuff and is attached to the engine.

[snbush67]

Hole should face forward.

Transmission vent? please read and comment

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by Jp-oh

If it was a main shaft seal would it not affect drivability by messily oiling up the clutch, flywheel etc?

Not immediately, but that is the long term consequence if you keep driving it and that's the problem.

[r-mm]

Dumb question, but the fill plug is in place and torqued down, right? At speed oil can move all over the place, but from your pic is the input shaft seal seems like a fair bet.

[Jp-oh]

I'll climb under the car tomorrow morning and have a better look. If the main seal is pooched that sounds bad. As in drop motor new clutch flywheel bad? Is it a normal symptom that it would just all of a sudden let got like this? If I keep an eye on the oil level can I drive it a bit at least?

[Jp-oh]

Bad news team. Breather is dry as a bone and all plugs are in and tight. Oil is 1000% gear and is coming from what looks very convincingly between the transmission and the engine and mostly/all on the driver's side. Here are some pics.