gearbox oil leak, please help

Hi

I have a fiat seicento 1.1s 2000y. It is leaking oil from inner cv boot. The oil is clear and has a strong smell, hence most likely gearbox oil. I showed it around to few garages and finally got work done on it at nationwide auto centre, bristol. The garage replaced the inner cv joint gaiter, drained gearbox and topped it up with 75w90. total bill =A380. Within two days the oil leak is back. I feel duped by the garage. I took car back to the garage, the mechanic had a quick look and said the bearing where shaft comes out of gaiter is leaking. he said he replaced it along with gaiter but he thinks the bearing must be faulty.

Is he talking rubbish? I now feel that the gearbox output shaft seal must have felt. The gaiter is just a dust cover and can't really stop oil from leaking. The garage just didn't investigate and diagnose the oil leak properly and wrongly changed the cv joint gaiter to fix the leak.

Please advice, any help will be highly appreciated.

Reply to
knts172
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I have a fiat seicento 1.1s 2000y. It is leaking oil from inner cv boot. The oil is clear and has a strong smell, hence most likely gearbox oil. I showed it around to few garages and finally got work done on it at nationwide auto centre, bristol. The garage replaced the inner cv joint gaiter, drained gearbox and topped it up with 75w90. total bill £80. Within two days the oil leak is back. I feel duped by the garage. I took car back to the garage, the mechanic had a quick look and said the bearing where shaft comes out of gaiter is leaking. he said he replaced it along with gaiter but he thinks the bearing must be faulty.

Is he talking rubbish? I now feel that the gearbox output shaft seal must have felt. The gaiter is just a dust cover and can't really stop oil from leaking. The garage just didn't investigate and diagnose the oil leak properly and wrongly changed the cv joint gaiter to fix the leak.

Please advice, any help will be highly appreciated.

he's correct in his assumption, the boot is the drive shaft seal & if its perished it will leak oil, they dont have seals as such like most gearboxes & its very likey the part has failed, which is allowing fluid back up the shaft past the bearing, give them the chance to sort it before going off on one.

Reply to
reg

what about inner cv joint lubrication? is it lubricated by gearbox oil or grease? will the gearbox oil leak wash away the grease and cause the cv joint to fail soon?

Reply to
knts172

Here are photographs of the oil leak from the left inner cv boot:

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any opinions?

Reply to
knts172

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your pictures arnt showing. saying page not found.

Reply to
kronenburgh

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Reply to
knts172

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they have used a cable tie instead of the proper metal band, the cable tie isnt man enough to grip the rubber around the whole of the bearing, get them to change it & it should stop leaking.

Reply to
kronenburgh

the inner cv joint isn't a joint as such, its called a spider joint, three bearings (roller) mounted on the end of the shaft, they run in the gearbox oil which lubricates them, so there isn't any grease to worry about.

Reg

Reply to
kronenburgh

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I don't think that's the problem. I've bought boot kits that came with cable ties. Don't know this particular car but my one was supposed to have grease in those inner CVs, not oil. It looks like the seal on the differential side (i.e. the other side from the protruding halfshafts we can see in these pictures) has failed and is letting the diff oil leak into the CVs producing that oil/grease slurry that's dripping out.

The boots are to keep dust out basically, so you want a decent seal, but I don't think they're really expected to withstand liquids under pressure.

Reply to
Ben C

Ah, I should have read this before posting. I was making the same assumption as the OP: that there should be a seal on the diff and that the boots are just dust covers, but it sounds like these Seicentos aren't done like that.

Reply to
Ben C

yes you more then likely have bought cv boots with cable ties as possibly 90% of fwd cars have inner joints, where the inner drive shaft joints contain grease, but these are a different type of set up, they dont have an inner joint as such they have a three bearing spider joint that runs in the gearbox oil, the cv gaiter houses a bearing that should be secured by a metal band to the gaiter, the gaiter stops the gearbox oil from leaking out of the box.

Reg

Reply to
kronenburgh

Thanks a lot for your comments Reg! I will make sure this time the garage uses proper metal clamps to fix the gaiter.

Cheers

Reply to
knts172

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