S3 Oil Leak...?

[bridgdav]

After a week away I returned said hello to the other half, then went indoors to see the missus

I started the car and gave it a quick run on Sunday, as always stared first turn and ran like a dream, I missed the old girl....(enough twittering)

When I went to put the car away in Spain, I noticed a couple of patches of oil where the car had been parked.

I haven't had the chance to crawl underneath but are the V6's prone to any natural leakage....?

Is there anywhere I should be concentrating on looking....?

I'm not overly concerned as yet..

Any Ideas?

Cheers
Dave

[Podie]

bridgdav said:

Is there anywhere I should be concentrating on looking....?

Directly above where the patch is, might be a good start..

[bridgdav]

Always the Smart Ar$e....

Its funny though, I reversed the car in on Sunday and the patch under the engine had gone..

Any Sensible ideas please...?

[walsingham]

how much is 'a bit'? I have a patch where I park, but it's only small and not enough to worry about. If it has now disappeared, maybe it's a bit of water? I know mine's full to the rafters of that stuff, especially after today.

[bridgdav]

A bit = about 6 inch diameter spread into concrete garage floor.

Definitely not water....

[Pies]

Any clues like to the left or right

[Podie]

bridgdav said:

Always the Smart Ar$e.... Its funny though, I reversed the car in on Sunday and the patch under the engine had gone.. Any Sensible ideas please...?

just makes a change for me to be making the smart arse comments, rather than visa versa...

[bridgdav]

Ooooo ark at you.....

All in good jest mate..

The patch is pretty central, but seeing as no-one can identify something straight away, then I guess I won't worry until I can get a good look at it.

Cheers

Dave

[Pies]

Sump

[WonkyGibbon]

Just to be a doom merchant for five seconds ... the main sump pan gasket is a good place to start but it can be worse than that if you're unlucky. I had a "rear sump seal gasket" go on my old Fiat a few years ago - it's a small seal that I believe goes between the output drive of the engine and the gearbox. Same symptom, oil on the floor, and requires the engine to be taken apart to fix. The good news, is that you can buy an awful lot of castrol for that sort of cost (so I never did anything about it) and it never got any worse.

[tvrgit]

the crankshaft front oil seal nearly always leaks on the Ford V6, but it's cheaper to put oil in, than fix it. It's not that hard to fix though - I did the one on my old Granada with the engine in situ, and the S has more space in front of the engine.

The crankshaft rear oil seal is more of a bugger because (a) it's harder to fix and (b) it can get oil on the clutch.

Course it might just be a rocker cover...

[Le TVR]

tvrgit said:

the crankshaft front oil seal nearly always leaks on the Ford V6 Course it might just be a rocker cover...

They are the classics.

Mine has been leaking a little from both for at least 10 years now. But there is never any mark on the garage floor...