Oil leak

[allanjenkins]

Just SORN'd the car today and started the prep for it's winter rest. Got it up on the lift and noticed the front undertray had some signs of oil seepage, stretching back to roughly the B pillars. Not a lot, just changed the colour of the undertray to jet black as opposed to black if you know what I mean.

Whipped the front undertray off which indicated the NSF drive shaft oil seal on the drive unit, I think is the culprit. Jet black on that side around the non metallic fuel tank and very greasy, and migrates backwards as a film.

Is this a common issue does anyone know?

I'm off down to Leicester tomorrow, so will drop into the Porsche dealer to ask a few questions.

I decided a few years ago to ditch the Porsche warranty as I thought it was an outrageous cost so I guess we could be having an article in "All Torque" in the foreseeable future on this subject, maybe. Hopefully not!

[Nighttrain]

I had this problem a couple of months ago, turned out to be a worn front diff bearing. Had the diff stripped and replace all the bearings and seals.
It might just be the orange outer seal that is worn, is there any play on the shaft to indicate a worn bearing.
Apparently it's not that common.

[allanjenkins]

Thought I could detect some movement on the shaft on that side compared to the other, but I'll do a definite check in the morning and see if I can get a dial gauge near it to tell for sure.

[allanjenkins]

As far as I can tell there's no play on either output shaft so I'm expecting only the seal to have failed. In discussions with the techs at Leicester OPC they confirm that the seal is normally the issue and only in very rare circumstances does it lead to bearing failure. From what I've read on other sites it can be a blocked breather that causes a pressure build up which in turn pressurises the seal to fail. If not detected early it will lead to bearing failure.
I've ordered the seal and plan to fit it in situ in the next few days.

[allanjenkins]

Collected the seal late last week and ordered the gear oil from Opie.

Decided to start the job yesterday afternoon, stright forward really. After draining down I was hoping I could slide the drive shaft back enough to remove the output shaft coupling, wishful thinking!

I ended up splitting the lower ball joint, streering joint and loosening the lower link to get sufficient movement on the drive shaft to remove the output shaft coupling which is located on a snap ring.

A little gentle persuasion on the oil seal with a small pry bar and it popped out. Anyway it's all back together now just waiting the oil.

[chaser]

I am having to do the same job, but on my gearbox. Picked up the oil seals along, with a couple of circlips, today.

I was hoping to do the job without having to let the rear suspension go

Waiting for Opie oils too