Hello,

I have a slight leak coming from crankshaft at gearbox end,sorry im limited mechanically wise lol i had brought to garage a few wks ago and he suspected was coming from crank shaft seal,he removed pan cover(bottom plastic cover?) and got engine steam cleaned down as was fairly messy to be able to see better,in meantime i added a bottle of stop leak and leak stopped after a few days and there was nothing on sheets paper i was leaving nightly under engine so i thought wow this is a blessing but 2 days ago slight drip on paper like really small run,i brought car over to garage and confirmed crank shaft seal,he said he has seen these leaks stay very min for long time and as it is alot of money to repair which money is fairly tight at moment,so at present i have got the cover put back on and just going to check oil level regularly  but im bit worried about it,anyone any advice on this?apparently gearbox,flywheel would need be removed to get seal replaced so i can see would cost alot,also he said be just aswell changing clutch while everything is out,i suppose im asking could i expect to get another while the way it is before job needs to be done? Thank you, car is skoda octavia 1.9 tdi mk2 2009 with 115k miles on clock.

You seem to have bought a 'Pátek odpoledne - pondělí ráno' car, perhaps it's time to cut your losses.

7 minutes ago, MicMac said:

You seem to have bought a 'Pátek odpoledne - pondělí ráno' car, perhaps it's time to cut your losses.

Haha oh seems have gone that way, I have it close to 3 yrs now and all problems just happened in row in last few mths :( runs great apart from this leak, just hope to get a bit of time before need to repair it, wondered has anyone had similar leak that's just kept leaking small for a while ha.. Well I'm praying 

If stop leak hasn't helped just run it and monitor the leak, top up with VW 505.01 5W40 oil not the less viscous 507 5W30, it may slow the leak.

 

I'd be cautious adding additional products to the oil just in case the additive/viscosity change causes turbo failure.

10 minutes ago, MicMac said:

If stop leak hasn't helped just run it and monitor the leak, top up with VW 505.01 5W40 oil not the less viscous 507 5W30, it may slow the leak.

 

I'd be cautious adding additional products to the oil just in case the additive/viscosity change causes turbo failure.

Cheers, no I wouldn't add additional stuff to oil, was great it had stopped leak for near two wks, then just started again. Literally just few drips now so will take while at that rate to need a top up but I will keep close eye on levels. 

Obviously the last thing you want is to run out of oil then your engine will be toast. 

 

You could maybe search around for other stop leak type products some may work better than others. 

 

It should keep ticking along, I'm sure there could some knock on effect in the engine with the slight decrease in pressure but I would imagine as long as you kept it topped up then it should last long enough.

 

You may as well use cheap as chips oil, I've seen a litre of oil in one of these buy anything shops as low as £2.99 or was it £3.99. Not sure if the viscosity of the oil will make any difference, thicker oil might be better but I doubt it.

 

Yeh you need to remove driveshaft, gearbox, clutch and flywheel the access then oil seal if you do get it done you might want to replace the clutch also if it's got a lot of miles.

4 hours ago, Aj77 said:

Obviously the last thing you want is to run out of oil then your engine will be toast. 

 

You could maybe search around for other stop leak type products some may work better than others. 

 

It should keep ticking along, I'm sure there could some knock on effect in the engine with the slight decrease in pressure but I would imagine as long as you kept it topped up then it should last long enough.

 

You may as well use cheap as chips oil, I've seen a litre of oil in one of these buy anything shops as low as £2.99 or was it £3.99. Not sure if the viscosity of the oil will make any difference, thicker oil might be better but I doubt it.

 

Yeh you need to remove driveshaft, gearbox, clutch and flywheel the access then oil seal if you do get it done you might want to replace the clutch also if it's got a lot of miles.

Hi Aj,thank you for the reply  i am not losing much now at moment,leak is very little fingers crossed stays thats way for while ha! yes the mechanic was saying may aswell change clutch while it is all out,just hoping will last few mths way it is,if leak gets worse and lowers oil right down while parked i might try another leak stop product just dont want to add now as added one already on full oil thats in it,as you say maybe try thicker oil if starts losing more as wks go forward,expensive job to get done so trying drag it along  tks again for reply.

At least your mechanic is talking sense. All the labour involved in doing the seal is necessary for the clutch, so with that mileage it would be a good call. Have just done the opposite with the lad's Mini, doing the crankshaft oil seal when we had to get the clutch done.

Will likely last for ages without serious consequence, but will get messier over time and could lead to contamination and slippage of the clutch.