Hi all, had a rather shocking discovery today on my 2013 Petrol VRS DSG! I've just been replacing the front wheel bearings (2nd time since I've owned it, on 160k miles now...) and noticed a little bit of oil on the under body tray. Took off the inner wheel liner, and under trays to find the side cover on the gearbox had a few rust pimples, including a rather large one. 

 

 

 

I made the rather foolish decision to poke at it, and a nice chunk came off, revealing a lovely hole right into the side of my gearbox!! 😱

 

 

The overall condition is pretty shocking considering it's been above covers all it's life, where could it have got any damage from?! 

 

 

You can just see in the corner of the photo that the front cover is also really badly rusted with some really deep pitting in places. That'll need replacing too. 

 

I'm in a bit of a pickle now as well, cos as soon as I lower the car back down on its wheel, oil starts dribbling out of that hole!

I'm currently pricing up parts/oil etc before I brave lowering it down, then quickly backing it down my drive to a slope where hopefully the oil will stay inside! 

 

Has anyone else ever come across something like this? The car is 9 years old with 160k miles on it, but surely this shouldn't happen yet! 

 

Well that is a new one! 

My complete guess would be a stone chip or something has damaged the paint and allowed it to rust over time. Other than that, I have no idea how that would of happened. 

Do you have any gasket sealant you can put over it for now?

It's simply 9 years of rust on a thin tin plate with only a dusting of unprimed electrostatic paint on it offering no protection, no different to the bacofoil brake disc dust covers which I'm sure will have already been replaced on your vehicle.

 

If you think that is shocking then best not to look at your rear suspension!

 

The basic problem is that these cars are too oil tight and hence thess parts don't get coated in schmoo to protect them, you no longer have that problem 🤣

 

 

@jimbojames  Metal Magic / Putty might just work long enough until you get a new pan.

 

Any Superstore DIY near you open tonight or at least tomorrow?

 

Evo-Stick Hard & Fast / Rapid steel type thing.

 

I do not have those here but i would use 'Superglue & Bicarbonate of soda with a little patch of tin foil just covering the hole and the edge of glue before i applied the glue and bicarb of soda. 

 

I trained @ 'Kerbside Auto's'.  where a deal was done on a handshake!.

(A dab of underseal or black paint, even shoe polish and who knew what was under that.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 May, 20233 yr by toot

10 minutes ago, toot said:

@jimbojames  Metal Magic / Putty might just work long enough until you get a new pan.

 

Any Superstore DIY near you open tonight or at least tomorrow?

 

Evo-Stick Hard & Fast / Rapid steel type thing.

 

I do not have those here but i would use 'Superglue & Bicarbonate of soda with a little patch of tin foil just covering the hole and the edge of glue before i applied the glue and bicarb of soda. 

 

 

I've got a screwfix near me, so just put this stuff on,

my superstar neighbour has offered me his little run around clio to use until parts arrive, (he's got a brand new Octavia Vrs that I'm very jealous of) so this stuff just needs to hold while it's parked on my drive (on a slope so no oil touching other than the tiny bit to roll the car down from my garage). 

All parts ordered, £255. That's the side cover plate, front cover plate, gaskets for both, new oil and filter. 

I was planning to do the oil and filter later on this year anyway, so I'm not too sore about draining it all now. 

36 minutes ago, J.R. said:

It's simply 9 years of rust on a thin tin plate with only a dusting of unprimed electrostatic paint on it offering no protection, no different to the bacofoil brake disc dust covers which I'm sure will have already been replaced on your vehicle.

 

If you think that is shocking then best not to look at your rear suspension!

 

The basic problem is that these cars are too oil tight and hence thess parts don't get coated in schmoo to protect them, you no longer have that problem 🤣

 

 

I work maintenance at a car factory in the North East (I wonder who!) and I really shouldn't have been surprised by all this. Car manufacturers these days seem to put the absolute minimum into quality just to get it through its warranty! Truly a throw away society now. 

Will you be considering adding a few more coats of paint to your new plates before you fit them?

3 hours ago, jimbojames said:

I work maintenance at a car factory in the North East (I wonder who!) and I really shouldn't have been surprised by all this. Car manufacturers these days seem to put the absolute minimum into quality just to get it through its warranty! Truly a throw away society now. 

Its a pendulum that swings.

 

Cars from my youth, those built in the 60's and 70's would rarely reach over 80k miles, the engines would need decoking from about 25K and either need a full rebuild or be rattling like a pig at 60K.

 

They would usually fail the first MOT on rust and need more welding every year, I put myself through college and got on the property ladder by investing in a trolley jack and BOc portapak when I was 17.

 

The lacquer on metallic finishes would often peel off completely within a few years, particular the Fords with Silver Fox and Saluki Bronze metallics.

 

Compared to then most cars of the 90's were a million times better despite never being garaged, the above rusting etc happened when most cars were garaged but would still not see their 10th anniversary.

 

I reckon for VAG the pinnacle was about 2000/2002 around the time of the MK1 Octavia, the MK2 may have had more toys & features to sell it but the underbody protection and especially the protective finishes on suspension & brake components, cross members, suspension arms etc was seriously lacking and the later models just got worse, the toys & features were also an Achilles heel.

 

I will never buy a newer vehicle than the one I have, if it gets scrapped or written off I will search long and hard to find an older model in good condition. In 10 or more years time from now there will still be very good condition vehicles around from the late 90's to early 2000's but very few of vehicles later than that.

 

I can only hope that the pendulum will swing back at some time in the future on EV's but from what I have seen the underbody protection is very poor at present, probably no worse than an IC engined vehicle but still very poor.

12 hours ago, HeavyMetalRich said:

Will you be considering adding a few more coats of paint to your new plates before you fit them?

I certainly will! Though you never know, it might come with a really nice thick finish on it.... 

I had a 1986 Micra as my first car which had a pin hole in the sump which use to leak oil.

Every 3 months I'd park it on a bank with the front end higher to stop it leaking and get to work with some degreaser and chemical metal.

I never changed the sump in the 2 years I owned the car 👍

Thats the best way to do it if you cannot remove it to weld or replace it but as you have found it is not a permanent repair.