Leaking mystery brown fluid...

[lard44]

...found on the clutch pedal of my sister's Felicia - any ideas what it could be?

She ran up a kerb quite heavily last weekend and needed a new oil sump and a refurbed gear box put in (apparently - she was 200miles from home so I never got a look).

Since she's been driving it back she's noticed a few drops of brown liquid dripping down the steering column and onto the clutch pedal every day - has apparently soaked a lot of the foam insulation etc under there too - and she's got 3 air fresheners but the car still stinks.

She rang the mechanic who said it was most likely 'grease' - which sounds like twaddle to me as this clearly isn't grease - but what could it be? I first thought brake fluid but apparently that's fine - gearbox oil maybe? It's not power steering so it couldn't be that...

And then what's to be done about it?

Cheers all,

P

[anewman]

Does it smell a bit iffy like cats pee? Apparently a common problem is gearbox oil going up the speedo drive cable which drips as you describe. This has two possible causes - the gearbox oil was overfilled (seems likely as the gearbox has just been replaced). Or the breather on top of the gearbox is blocked up (this is hidden under the clutch release lever and is just a small plastic thing which should be able to move up and down a small amount. The correct gear oil level is 4 mm up from the bottom of the speedo drive used as a dipstick

I wouldn't expect new gearbox oil to be brown though, so this would make me rather suspicious. The clutch on the felicia is cable controlled and the brake system is the opposite side of the engine bay (actuated by a cross-over linkage) so it will not be brake fluid.

[lard44]

Cheers for the quick reply...umm encourage my ignorance - what colour should new gearbox oil be?

[anewman]

I would describe it as sort of a golden colour close to new engine oil. I missed the bit in your post about the smell, so it sounds like it is definitely the lovely gear oil smell.

[oldshu]

I've got the same problem on my 1.3MPi, except it is leaking from every joint on the speedo cable.

Where abouts should I be looking for this gearbox breather / clutch release lever?

[swedishskoda]

I've got the same problem on my 1.3MPi, except it is leaking from every joint on the speedo cable.

Where abouts should I be looking for this gearbox breather / clutch release lever?

The lever is visible on top of the gearbox, a 4" or so long flat metal arm with a cable attached to it (can't be missed). Or at least it is on the 1.6 model, don't know about the 1.3 but guess it's the same.

[oldshu]

Found it thanks - for some reason its metal and not plastic on mine, hence the confusion. Bit of WD40 loosened it right up, just got to get rid of the smell now!