Leaking oil from bellhousing- gear box or power steering

[stewhughart]

Hi all,
My 2002 Mk4 1.6 petrol auto is leaking fluid (oil) from aropund the bottom of the bell housing. I ffirst thought it was power steering fluid as it is very light and has a slightly black.grey tinge to it. I have tried tracing the powere steering lines and it doesnt seem to be coming from them, so now I wonder if it is the Gearbox fluid? I cant see a level dip stick nor any drain plugs for the gearbox- is it refillable? Any thoughts on the cause of the problem?

[djorkboy]

How much oil? does it leak all the time? Is it really leaking from the bottom of the bellhousing or is it leaking higher up and dripping to a lower point before dripping onto the ground?

My V6 Bora weeps oil from the join between the bellhousing and the sump but only after the engine has cooled right down then the airtemp has started to rise a bit. So mostly if I leave it undriven for 24 hours or more it will leak in the morning but not during the night. Once I start it up and run it for a bit it's fine, won't drop even another single drop of oil until it has cooled right down again. If I don't drive it after it starts to weep it will keep going at a rate or about 1 drop every 5-10 seconds. Enough to empty a third of the oil from the engine if I park the car Friday night then don't start it until Monday morning.

At first I thought it was power steering fluid, then I thought it was gearbox fluid (which was ridiculous as it's leaking from the join between the engine and bellhousing, quite some distance from the gearbox and it's fluid), then I thought it was clutch fluid as it just never quite looked, felt or smelled like oil. But after much trial and error and a few trips to the mechanic I have confirmed it is definitely engine oil.

Best way to start to figure out what it is, get some of that absorbent kitchen paper or toilet paper and put a sample of each fluid in your car on it, then compare the colour and smell against the leaking fluid.

Mine really looked like it was coming out the bottom but after much testing and quite a bit of time spent lying under the car I confirmed it's actually leaking higher up, at the front of the engine 3 centimetres or so below where the bellhousing, sump and engine block meet.

In my case it is almost certainly caused by the time a few months back when the gearbox mount snapped and the whole engine tried to fall out as it had never dropped any fluid of any kind before then. I'm guessing the sump got twisted a bit as it looks to be the softest metal out of the three items.

[Umai Naa!!]

Stewhugart, It's most likely coming from the cam cover breather, which tickles down into the throttle body.

[stewhughart]

I will look further. The leak happened quite dramatically last night and lelft a significant and sudden puddle on the road.I think the oil is too light for engine oil as I have caught ome of the drips and it is not the engine oil colour nor viscosity. It is quite light. It is very popssibly coming from higher up. I will keep looking. Thanks

[stewhughart]

Well it looks like we have found the problem, and it was not as dramatic as first thought. The leak was radiator fluid from a split hose on top of the gearbox. The fluid leaked down and washed a bit of oil with it. Many thanks to the friendly and efficient Dean from BMWise who not only debugged the problem fut found a replacement BM hose to get me out of trouble. Goes to show- try the simple things first.