Club 80-90 Forums

What is it with 30 year old vans and things going wrong? With mine it´s a never ending story.

I could really do with some advice with this problem as the van is stuck in a workshop it Italy and I can either have it towed to a workshop of my choice here in Germany or recover it myself (cost reimbursed) back home to be dealt with later.

Basically, we had a family holiday on the Venetian coast and after about 3 hours on the drive back I pulled up at the services to tank and grab a bite to eat when the driver of the car I pulled up next to started staring at the back of the van. I took a look underneath and saw fluid pouring out of the final drive when it meets the engine. It wasn´t a drip but a constant stream which lasted about a couple of minutes after I turned the engine off. I wasn´t sure what the leak was so drove the van a few yards further on to inspect the oil and confirmed it was ATF rather than hypoid or engine oil.

What could have "blown" in this case? The weather was very warm/hot but as far as I know the engine wasn´t overheating, the van was driving perfectly with no grinding/clucking noises from the gearbox and I might not have even looked under the van if someone hadn´t had stared at it I didn´t have any issues moving the van the few yards either to check the puddle so I think the gearbox itself is still ok. Is there a gasket between the final drive and engine that could have gone or has ATF leaked from the gearbox itself into the final drive any then had nowhere else to go but out? I expect the leak only really got major when I stopped otherwise I'd have been all out of ATF with a knackered gearbox within minutes.

Minor in comparison is an oil leak which happened at the same time, either the push rod tube seals or the rocker cover gaskets gone again. Oil was dripping onto the heat exchangers quite badly. It's disturbing that these were all changed about 6 weeks ago and this is the second time this has happend on journeys over 3 hours. I'm using 20W 50 oil so have I possibly got a chronic overheating problem and if so could that also cause the ATF leak. The ATF was not hot or even warm to the touch so I'm confused whether the 2 issues are even releated or not.

Apologies for the long and badly written post but at this stage I'm getting issue after issue fixed only for something to go wrong and I'm wondering if the problem will reoccur because I'm not getting to the root cause. BTW the van has an Aircooled CU engine. Thanks for any advice

Dont no if this can help you got this off a haynes manual.Okay from memory from working on a autobox 2ltr cu there is a gasket under the atf sump and a thick cork gasket for the diffrential unit.Between where the diffrental fits into the autobox there is a gasket 0 ring seal to keep the hypoid gear oil for the diff out of the auto box with atf fluid.The torque convertor fills up with atf fluid when turned by the engine there is a seal where it fits into the autobox.If you look carefull at the picts the seals are discribed .You said atf is leaking out where the auto box is fitted to the engine looks like then the seal for the converter is the problem.

Thanks Camper, that looks like just the spot, the ATF was running off the lip where the seal is and the large lip just to the right on the picture. Assuming it's that then I would probably need a new converter and seal only. What could cause that to go, just age or could there be another underlying cause?

Usually if ATF is leaking out between the engine and gearbox it is the torque converter oil seal failed, not bad to do after removing the engine.

Oil on the heat exchangers either push rod tube oil seals or rocker gasket. Only genuine VW push rod seals seam to work well.

When i had the autobox 2ltr cu it was leaking atf as discribed like your self.I removed the box and separated the diffrential unit from the gearbox there is a large 0 ring seal as discribed in the pict.Which on inspection on my auto box had gone hard&brittle .I searched on the internet and found a site where i could order replacement seals this was ages ago so i carnt help you where to get them.Aidan the 80 90 member is the person to contact on here and may be able to advice you where to get replacement seals.

hi there if you do the large o ring seal between the trans box and diff dont forget to replace the paper gasket as well threre is 2 of them both sides . these are no longer availble from vw , but porshe make them still with the same part numbers and are 90 pence each plus vat i rebuilt a box last month and orderd them its the same trans box the part number is 010321385b shaun

Thanks for the advice, quite reassuring that it´s probably only a gasket. The pushrod tube seals are really frustrating me, they were only replaced in a workshop 6 weeks and maybe 1200km ago and this will now be a third time I've had to replace them in 12 months. Both times they've really gone and started leaking profusely was when the outside temperature has been around 28°C + so that´s why I'm a bit concerned about overheating being the problem and causing my oil to thin - no oil pressure light has come on though, nor was there any lack of power.