Hi All,

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong location.

I have been chasing an oil leak for the past 2 weeks and would like some help with it. Details and pictures are below to assist.

Background:

I have owned the vehicle for 1 year and have had no problems until the past month.
I purchased at 167k km's and now have 176k km's.
LR FL2 HSE TD4 2.2L Diesel.

Approximately 300km ago a considerable amount of black smoke was pushing through the exhaust. With this, I noticed oil dripping from the sump guard. On removing the sump guard there was a lot of oil, everywhere. Nil oil could be seen from above the engine bay looking down. An engine light was thrown sometime after.

Current situation:

Smoke RESOLVED- The black smoke was caused by a considerable lengthways split in the main boost pipe (lower). This has been replaced with a silicon hose and the black smoke is no more, and performance has increased.

Oil - Following a big clean up I can see the oil "appears" to be coming from the following locations. The sump gasket. A small hole in the base of the transmission?? (sorry but I don't know my way around the car), and the starter motor beather pipe (Had no idea starter motor's would have breather nor why oil is coming from there). I have attached pictures of the components that seem to be leaking with blue markings to highlight where the oil has been located. The photo from under the engine is to detail where the transmission?? leak is located.

I have included details on the split hose as I thought it may bare relevance to the oil leaks.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Click image to enlarge

Sounds like oil is getting into the space between the engine and gear box. This is normally a dry space. It's the only way I can think of that oil would get through the starter motor (which engages on the flywheel in the space.

Oil can leak into this space from the engine, likely the rear main oil seal or from the gear box input shaft seal.

If you are having to add oil to the engine, then there's the clue.

Oh, and I had a similar issue which was the engine rear main seal and required the gearbox to be removed to replace the seal. Big money at a LR stealer.

Looks like a gearbox off job.
Main dealers charge a lot of money for a relatively simple problem that most decent garages can do easily for a lot less.

I imagine oil is being flung out from the output shaft to the teeth on the starter motor ring and finding its way inside the starter motor. Jules