Club 80-90 Forums

What i need are some words of wisdom from some of the old skool guys. Weve had the van (1.9 watercooled DG on LPG) for 3years now and like most old ladie of her age she is a little incontinent of oil. Ive had the crankoil seal done twice (gearbox end) with out much change to the little puddel left every time we stop. Now im being told it might be the flywheel. Am I about to start a long and expensive surch for a leak only to be dissapointed or should i just keep topping her up knowing theres always fresh cleen oil in there. The van is my daily drive and appart from the gearbox going bang in France last year (Recovery to UK now theres a nother story) no problems.
Cheers Nik

The search for the oil leak shouldn't be expensive to start with just messy. You need to confirm where the leak is coming from first. You'll need to really clean the underside of the engine with a de-greaser like jizer. Once it's all oil free run the engine while stationary and check underneath with a good torch until you are certain you can see where the oil leak starts from. If you try finding the leak after a run the oil will have blown everywhere and will be dripping off the lowest point it has run to which could be miles away from where it started leaking.
My CU engine dripped for the first year I had the van and like you I just viewed it as a rolling oil change. Eventually I got a garage to change the crankshaft oil seal, and I did the rocker cover gasket, and tightened the oil filter & since then I don't lose any oil at all.

What he said and yes could well be the flywheel oil seal. Big job - not really as long as you have a flywheel locking tool.

There's an O-ring inside the crankshaft recess in the flywheel but if you have a front crankshaft oil seal that's failed twice are you sure you don't have end float ? Is the pulley on nice and tight ?

Ian

Many many flywheel seal replacements go badly because the seal is replaced but wear on the flywheel hub's sealing surface is not addressed.

These mostly redundant threads have helpful info on this job:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392606" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=335247" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=441232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(the last one is entertainingly high on the stupid scale)