Fluid Leakage

[lowbo69]

Hi Guys,

 

I've had my MkII 1.9TDI since March and needed to fix a problem with a blowing exhaust. So I had the vehicle up on axle stands front near and rear near side. I managed to access the exhaust and repair the fault. The vehicle was on the stands over night and I started it up to check the exhaust 24hrs after jacking it up. Still on the axle stands i ran the vehicle for 5 mins. This is when I noticed a large amount of what looked, felt and smelt like hydraulic fluid. Dropping the vehicle and driving it round the block there doesn't seem to be any more leakage. Can anyone explain where it has come from and why? I've checked the fluid levels on power steering but cannot see the whereabouts of the master cylinder level for brakes, to check this. I'm hoping this happened due to being up on stands but can't work out why.???

 

Any assistance on this matter would be most welcome as I'm driving up North this weekend and would like reassureance there is nothing serious going on.

[seatkid]

I'm assuming you didn't take the engine undertray off.

 

Take the engine undertray off, it will probably be saturated with old oil. Then have a good look underneath the engine to see where the majority of the oil is at the same time give it a good wipe down.

 

In my case, a lot of oil came from succesive oil filter changes. Oil spills from the filter and invariably runs down the block and in between the oil sump cover and the plastic oil sump protection cover thats fitted over it. The inside of the plastic protection cover is lined with foam which acts as a sponge - until it can take no more. Fortunately its easy to remove this protection cover - 2 or 3 bolts and a couple of clips.

 

The difficult/messy bit is cleaning it all particularly the padding on the inside of the engine undertray - best to use swarfega or something similar, and you may have to duct tape the padding down when you're finished (or dispose of it completely)

 

Its easy to check the steering pump once everything is clean.

 

The brake master cylinder and reservoir is located on the engine bulkhead on the drivers side. To get a good look and certainly to fill it you need to take the plastic scuttle tray off (fitted under the windscreen held on with 3 bolts). Bear in mind that if your brake fluid (the same reservoir is used for the clutch) is low, than you'll get a warning light on the dash.

Edited July 27, 2011 by seatkid