engine and gearbox leaking oil, maybe new seal?

[andys15]

Hi i own a 99 V plate 1.0litre corsa with a X10XE engine eand it has had an ongoing oil leak between what looks like the sump and gearbox, guessing its a seal that has gone as i havent overfilled it to have to leak out. but wondering if its a common problem and how easy it would be to fix reguarding replaceing whatever has failed, like a seal or gasget etc. ive had some ideas that i could replace my castrol sports oil with slightly thicker viscosity to bridge any small gaps in there, but obvioulsy when the oil gets hot, it becomes thinner so more is dripping out as gonig along and its costing me quite a bit in oil top-ups now, so any ideas of a quick fix of what would need replaceing and how difficult it would be to do, have gone over haynes manual and it no such problem or even areound the area is diagnosed, so bit stuck really,
will try and post some pictures of the area mentioned and where its dripping from.
cheers in advance, andy

[scotty cav turbo]

What id firstly do is clean the whole area up reaaly well. maybe even remove the small tin plate on the bottom of the gearbox bell housing. If its around that area it sounds like the rear main oil seal, but could also be sump/gasket. Get some pics up and go from there......

[andys15]

here are some pictures i took earlier tonight.

[andys15]

it doesnt appear to be dripping out when not standing still only after having been ran long enough to heat up the oil, went to dixons today and the guys there said it might either be the crankshaft seal thats gone or the rear sump seal thats gone, so tomorrow am gonig to get it steam cleaned to see where leak is coming from and they will hopefully tell me how much itll cost to reaplce and fix, so will go from there, and update the results as i go along, have seen some on the net and the replacement part is between £5-£10, but the labour charges for removal of engine and gearbox are over £300!!

[andys15]

can a moderator since the forums have changed, moved this topic into 'technical help' please. that way i might get more replies?

[scotty cav turbo]

As the advice before, get it cleaned up spotless, and basicly just leave it running untill you can see a leak. Best to take off things that will make you see/access the leak better.

[scorpiotn1]

Did you get this problem sorted as i seem to be having the same issue.

[andys15]

hi, it was only a crakshft sensor seal (o-ring seal) that needed changing in the end, jacked car up, a bit of fiddling about and changed it with new seal and an oil changed, a 2 year old thread wow, hope this helps...

[scorpiotn1]

Was there any special tools used etc, I'm gona order a new seal on eBay. I have the Haynes manual so should be too difficult. The more info you can give me in this the better mate cheers.