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.

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.

EDIT - If anyone can explain why there seems to be a breather hose in the starter motor that would be helpful?

Click image to enlarge

If it's engine oil looks to me that the crankshaft seal at the gearbox end has worn and needs to be replaced

I can confirm that all leaking oil is engine oil.

Can you explain you diagnosis?

Thank you

From your photo it's the seal on the engine crankshaft, if its mainly coming from that hole between the engine block and gearbox the oil can end up over the back of the engine. Common fault. I had it myself.

A search will throw up lots of posts. The seal it's self is what around £30 to £40 easy to replace but it's a six hour book time to remove the gearbox. So if your torque converter is playing up get that done at the same time

Rear main seal was my initial thought. Given I’m no expect, at all, is this different to the crankshaft seal? Either way, a reasonably hefty job to complete which I don’t expect to do myself.

Any thoughts on oil seeping from the starter motor breather in the picture?

It's definitely the rear main oil seal failing.
This will spray oil all round the bell housing, so the starter could well be showing signs of oil leakage, as it also protrudes into the bell housing, and would get covered in oil.

The seal itself is pretty easy to install, although the use of the special tool is recommended, as it's fitted location needs to be precise, or the new seal will also leak. Also all seal surfaces need cleaning of all oil contamination, so the new seal is fitted dry, failing to follow this instruction will also result in the new seal leaking.

Although the oil seal itself is pretty easy to install, actually getting to the seal requires the gearbox and torque converter be removed, the former being a long job. Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate. The family car.
2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Gone.
2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE. Gone.
Audi A5 convertible, my daily driver.
1972 Hillman Avenger GT, the project.