I found the cause of a tiny leak that I had coming from around the drain plug of the T5 gear box, it turns out to be a small hairline crack in the casing next to the drain plug and not the plug itself, its about 20mm long from the edge of the drain plug hole so it looks like the probable cause has been an over tightened drain plug, I was thinking of using some of that Epoxy Metal repair or can any one recommend something better.

 

I've used e metal before and it does the job fine,the only problem is getting rid of all the oil first to let the stuff go off nicely.should be fine though.

 

chemical metal should sort it, as vaughant says, best gettin as much oil out as poss, if you can drain the oil and leave it to drain for a few days

 

You will need to do more than just drain it...
It will need to be cleaned out as much as poss with brake cleaner and left to dry right out..
But once clean and dry a good metal bonder as said above should do the trick..


cheers danny

 

could it be ally welded ?

 

Cheers guys, it has been drained for a couple of days now anyway I will rough it up with the trusty old dremel and cut into the crack a little bit to give it something to key into ,I suppose it would be better to fit the drain plug back in before doing this as it will probably spread the crack a little bit, do you know if it is a tapered thread or does it just rely on thread sealant to seal it?

studabear I will probably get it welded if the above does not work but was unsure weather the heat from welding would distort the thread also don't know if it could be done on the vehicle with the fluid in it

 

Not sure if this works on ally but if you were to drill a small hole at the very end if the crack this will stop it from spreading any further whether its tightened or not.Only problem is filling the hole again if the metal compound doesn't work.

 

we've done a few sumps over the years, so gearbox should be just as easy

 

I sorted a sump oil leak recently by draining the oil, cleaning the holes (2 small ones) with a wire wheel on the drill and brake cleaner and applied Araldite for metal. Let the araldite go off for 3 hours and it hasn't leaked since Maybe different with a crack tho

 

v it out and chemical metal it ive done it 5 or 6 times now on truck gearbox caseings at work!

 

Buy some loctite 5900 or 5910(quick set 5 mins) this will stop it 100%, just need to do at each oil change if disturbed.
tabetha

 

Did exactly the same on the sump on my E36 diesel while it was owned by my brother. The silly cunt bounced it off a kerb in the ice and due to the engine mounts being shagged the engine moved forward and the front crossmember punctured the sump

Drained oil, cleaned up, roughed up and epoxy resined it - never leaked since

Then I made the tight fusted fucker that he is buy some new enigne mounts and a few other bits before I had the car off of him