My 2009 TD4 FL2, 44k miles, developed an oil leak 3 weeks ago, enough to drip from the under tray and to coat the tailgate on a long run. I did a web search and the most likely culprit was the rear crankshaft oil seal. http://www.freel2.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_sad.gif
My Indy LR expert took on the job and returned the car today. The interesting bit is that while changing the oil seal, he noticed that an adjacent 'main oil gallery sealing plug' was loose. It has an allen key head and sits top left of the crankshaft seal. As this is under high pressure it is entirely possible that it was the source of the oil leak. Naturally he has replaced the seal and retightened it.
On the web, there are several posts that refer to continual failure of the crank seal and it just made me wonder if this sealing plug was the actual cause?
So if you do have to split the engine and gearbox to change the oil seal, then check this plug too.
From the LR manual exploded diagram I saw it looks as if there is also one on the front face of the engine. (diagram E84624, item 4).

Ian.

This was a common fault on Fiesta Zetec engines. I lost count of the number of FRONT crankshaft oil seals I had replaced until I ran one once with the cam cover removed and the crank pulley well secured (no woodruff keys on them). Turned out it was the large Allen key blanking plug for the main oil gallery that was the culprit! Half a turn on the Allen key always cured it.

Hi lwt, had my freelander a couple of weeks and noticed that the oil was low, so topped up. This morning oil on minimum again! Looked through the service history and found that the crankshaft oil seal was replaced two years ago. Reading the threads seems like it could be a reoccurring issue ( )so I would like to check the main oil gallery sealing plug, can you let me know where that is, I have searched but to no avail? Thanks.

I think that it would be master of understatement to say that it's a bit tricky to check! There is one at the back of the engine (the one that my fixer found loose) and another at the front. To get at the rear one means splitting the engine from the gearbox. There are other threads on how to do this but the LR way requires removal of the transfer box and both driveshafts which in turn requires the front suspension to be dismantled. My point was that, if you have a bad enough leak to suspect that the crankshaft oil seal needs replacing, then plan to replace it (as the seal itself only costs a few pounds) but while you have the power plant dismantled then check this oil gallery bung too.

Ian.