CV Axle oil residue

[everson38]

Hey Guys,

I have a seat ibiza MK5 SE 2009 plate

Need some major help here! I had my car jacked up in the air and whilst looking underneath it, i noticed on both CV axles before the rubber boot (the parts that connect to the transmission) had an oily residue on them (see pictures attached)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82985166@N03/35506287202/in/album-72157685679531136/
(CV AXLE + OILY SHROUD) - In this photo you can see the oily residue on the CV axle but also, if you look above the CV axle you will see a type of black ridged cover, i noticed there was oil on this part also? How would oil have got here as i dont believe it contains oil? but i dont actually know what this part is?

I have attached some more pictures of the oily CV boots and also a picture of me holding a mirror from the TOP of the engine to the part which is the black ridged shroud part, so that you can get a reference of where it is. Also a picture of my oil dip stick to show that my oil is at about 80% full but i cannot remember when i did my oil change about 8 months ago is this has always been its level or if it has dropped?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82985166@N03/34834610374/in/album-72157685679531136/ (CV axle)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82985166@N03/34866406583/in/album-72157685679531136/ (Oil dispstick)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82985166@N03/34834642114/in/album-72157685679531136/
(Black shroud positioning - from top of engine)

Any help would be great, is this normal, have i got a major problem. any help would be great.
Here is a link to my whole album of pictures if it easier to people

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82985166@N03/albums/72157685679531136/with/34834642114/

 

[dm222]

that oil is from the gearbox I believe.
mine was like that but not as bad as yours (I think).

I cleaned them last year because of the inspection (I believe you call it MOT in UK).

 

[everson38]

that oil is from the gearbox I believe.
mine was like that but not as bad as yours (I think).

I cleaned them last year because of the inspection (I believe you call it MOT in UK).

Hey DM222. So when you say its from the gear box, is that saying i am having a gear box leak? what did you do to fix yours?

thanks again i appreciate the response

 

[dm222]

Just cleaned it

 

[RUM4MO]

Maybe I am wrong, but yes you can get oil misting out of the gearbox, but what you have looks like it is coming from below the inlet manifold - the black plastic part showing in the first picture.

So, if you have not already cleaned all of this off, get some on your fingers and smell it(!) if it smells a bit of petrol, it will be engine oil, if it smells of "tom cat's pee" it will be from the gearbox!!

So, if that car has a 1.4 16V petrol engine, it could be that one of the O-ring seals for the oil separator is causing this leak, there is known history of this happening and maybe SEAT revised these/that O-ring seal. I had this issue with a late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16v - I noticed that there was oil at that point and cleaned it up, then read about this potential O-ring issues, and bought new O-ring seals (two seals on that oil separator) - and did nothing else - yet, I might look up there as I'm replacing the front springs etc as that initial discovery took place over two years ago!!

Certainly it has not been causing the oil level to drop between services but I only run that car for about 3.5K miles a year.

Edit:- that black shroud is the inlet manifold, the oil separator is near that and located vertically almost and partly looks like a cylinder with an electrical connection and maybe water pipes attached to it. That inspection mirror - does the light switch still work on it, I bought one a year or two ago, seemed very cheap but when the LEDs could be switched on it was very handy, unfortunately, as of this month I can not get the LEDs to stay switched on as the switch feels like it is falling apart!!!!

 

[everson38]

Maybe I am wrong, but yes you can get oil misting out of the gearbox, but what you have looks like it is coming from below the inlet manifold - the black plastic part showing in the first picture.

So, if you have not already cleaned all of this off, get some on your fingers and smell it(!) if it smells a bit of petrol, it will be engine oil, if it smells of "tom cat's pee" it will be from the gearbox!!

So, if that car has a 1.4 16V petrol engine, it could be that one of the O-ring seals for the oil separator is causing this leak, there is known history of this happening and maybe SEAT revised these/that O-ring seal. I had this issue with a late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 16v - I noticed that there was oil at that point and cleaned it up, then read about this potential O-ring issues, and bought new O-ring seals (two seals on that oil separator) - and did nothing else - yet, I might look up there as I'm replacing the front springs etc as that initial discovery took place over two years ago!!

Certainly it has not been causing the oil level to drop between services but I only run that car for about 3.5K miles a year.

Edit:- that black shroud is the inlet manifold, the oil separator is near that and located vertically almost and partly looks like a cylinder with an electrical connection and maybe water pipes attached to it. That inspection mirror - does the light switch still work on it, I bought one a year or two ago, seemed very cheap but when the LEDs could be switched on it was very handy, unfortunately, as of this month I can not get the LEDs to stay switched on as the switch feels like it is falling apart!!!!

HEy Rum

thanks again for having a look. i thought the inlet manifold was at the front of the car near the bottom, so just in front of your heater fan if you will? although i think im confusing for exhaust manifold?

Wow so i could have two problem, gear box misting at the point where they both join transmission and also an inlet manifold oil leak. ill take another look now to be on safe side and try some more pictures and let you klmnow.

yes my light still works i bough mine from bnm and tbh it is one of my most important tools. i would recommend for sure

 

[RUM4MO]

The slight gearbox oil misting is not really an issue as such, most cars will end up with that plus it will slow down the rusting on the drive shafts! The engine oil weeping out past the O-ring seals on the oil separator, in my case, seem to stop or is not causing me too much of a problem, again, as I said, get some oil off that inlet manifold and smell it to find out which it is engine of gearbox oil, then wipe it clean, I think that in future you can just lean over the engine from the front to the rear and force a hand down and see if it comes back with more oil it - that is the easy way to check if that leak is still there a few weeks after wiping it clean.

 

[everson38]

The slight gearbox oil misting is not really an issue as such, most cars will end up with that plus it will slow down the rusting on the drive shafts! The engine oil weeping out past the O-ring seals on the oil separator, in my case, seem to stop or is not causing me too much of a problem, again, as I said, get some oil off that inlet manifold and smell it to find out which it is engine of gearbox oil, then wipe it clean, I think that in future you can just lean over the engine from the front to the rear and force a hand down and see if it comes back with more oil it - that is the easy way to check if that leak is still there a few weeks after wiping it clean.

hey rum i gave it a sniff, i wipe on seperate rage the cv joint, then the inlet manifold and the both are same in colour black and do smell of cat's wee, i mean i donmt have a cat but the definately dont smell like engine oil, as i smell that from the dispstick and they smell different.

So with that being said, your thinking if its gearbox oil then as the wheels go rounds it spraying off everywhere? so then i dont need to worry about the inlet manifold.

I may still get the seals sorted, just because when i look around i see residue around and worry if it is a much more worse leak, but for fully food for thought, if you had your cv axles joints like this you would not bother doing anything about it?

 

[dm222]

clean and see how quick it gets with oil again, it's pretty normal to gain some oil there, and I also believe it's from the gearbox because I cant's see how engine oil would end up there (at least the left one).


I took this picture last year in the middle of the cleaning with a wiper, you can see some parts are not yet clean:

 

[dm222]

Actually I have a video that can be seen a little:

I like to take this videos from time to time in order to check how things were back in time if a problem arrives.

1:20 and 1.45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQaX0XVwco


Edit: I see now the video was taken 2 months after cleaning the left one (1:45), but the right wasn't clean at the time of the video.

 

[everson38]

clean and see how quick it gets with oil again, it's pretty normal to gain some oil there, and I also believe it's from the gearbox because I cant's see how engine oil would end up there (at least the left one).


I took this picture last year in the middle of the cleaning with a wiper, you can see some parts are not yet clean:

hey dm.

thanks for posting with pictures always appreciate visuals as i am such a visual pperson. So from your picture are you saying you wiped it off and then a year later it still had some signs of residue on CV axle (sorry if being dumb lol)

Yeah i think i will try that. clean it all up with brake clean and then inspect every two weeks for my mom, as its here car and keep an eye on how bad it is.

 

[everson38]

Actually I have a video that can be seen a little:

I like to take this videos from time to time in order to check how things were back in time if a problem arrives.

1:20 and 1.45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQaX0XVwco


Edit: I see now the video was taken 2 months after cleaning the left one (1:45), but the right wasn't clean at the time of the video.

Chers again.

your ibza is looking and sounding nice!! Videoing and uploading to youtube is a great idea. ive left you a couple comment on there. sorry to be cheeky, but if you ever get a moment i would love you to do a video on how to get to the sparks plugs on the model, i no its under cover and you pull out, but seems very tough on mine so would appreicate (if you have done it b4) for u to do a quick videop. but dont kill yourself mate.

thanks again for all the stuff, been a big help

 

[dm222]

hey dm.

thanks for posting with pictures always appreciate visuals as i am such a visual pperson. So from your picture are you saying you wiped it off and then a year later it still had some signs of residue on CV axle (sorry if being dumb lol)

Yeah i think i will try that. clean it all up with brake clean and then inspect every two weeks for my mom, as its here car and keep an eye on how bad it is.

this was in the middle of the cleaning some parts were clean and some weren't so you can imagine how it was by looking at the section that it's not clean (similar to yours)

 

[RUM4MO]

The Haynes repair manual for the 6R Polo will cover that 1.4 16V petrol engine and any service jobs like changing plugs etc. (basically same car)

 

[dm222]

The Haynes repair manual for the 6R Polo will cover that 1.4 16V petrol engine and any service jobs like changing plugs etc. (basically same car)

true, I also recomend this website:

http://workshop-manuals.com/

It has information for Polo, maybe you will find something there.

 

[dm222]

Mine were like yours, look at this 1 year after cleaning pics.

Looks good so nothing to worry about

 

[dm222]

RUM4MO do you have any idea of what this brown stuff could be?

It's more visible in the image above, because I spilled a bottle of water before doing this pics to try to clean, but got me worried... maybe it's oil from the gearbox while renewing the oil because the drain plug is under that but I don't see how oil could go up...

 

[everson38]

RUM4MO do you have any idea of what this brown stuff could be?

It's more visible in the image above, because I spilled a bottle of water before doing this pics to try to clean, but got me worried... maybe it's oil from the gearbox while renewing the oil because the drain plug is under that but I don't see how oil could go up...

where are we looking exactly? on the boot , that sort of dried brown marks

 

[everson38]

I KNOW THIS IS OFF TOPIC, BUT DOES ANYONE KNOW AN APP VERSION TO DOWNLOAD TO get the seat forum on android phone. I have one called tapatalk, and forum seems to be on there, but when it ask me to log in it nevers works?

 

[dm222]

where are we looking exactly? on the boot , that sort of dried brown marks

yes