Met guy with a beetle today and he wants to know if an oil leak can be fixed easily. I had a look and its coming form between the case halfs 2 inches from the round oil sump plate. Is pulling the engine and splitting it the only option?

cooler seals of with the fn housing and replace all

when i first got my car
i cleaned the case half area and silicone over it
and it stop leaking for a few months lol

Don't use Silastic on magnesium alloy , It contains ACID
( I only used the capitols so LEE could read it):


Its unlikely to be leaking from between the cases , more like the oil is running down from behind the flywheel or cooler seals .

No its from the case, exactly where this arrow is pointing.

Someone probably levered the case apart on the lug and damaged the sealing surface.

I was going to suggest MAGIC.

As much as I hate to say it as I hate the 'quick fix' but maybe do Lee's cleaning thing then instead of acidic silicone use a neutral cure (nonacidic) silicone or even polyurathane sealant like Sikaflex or Bostic constructinn adhesive, but it will need to be uber clean and dry.

If you split the case a full rebuild will be on the cards.

Hi

i ALWAYS HAVE NON ACIDIC NEUTRAL CURE silicone on hand so maybe I've used that before...

but I do use black silastic on all exhaust gaskets on My VW
with no leaks... and the silastic doesn't burn either...

I don't think the acid in silicone is active once it dries.???

the most important part is CLEAN... clean clean..

I did have an oil leak about the same place but silicon has stopped that...

something silicon etc cannot stop is synthetic oil leaking from My gearbox...

My gearbox has Hypoid oil in it plus I also have ATF in the torque converter etc...

and the Castrol synthetic oil is leaking thru the stud threads ..

so I don't recommend synthetic oil.. lol

its not pouring out... but is always oily to touch...

not good when i want to paint everything... lol

sorry about the upper case... I like to see the light on,... lol

LEE

Matt

I reckon your right, screw driver to sperate the case. Im going to talk to the guys at work tomorrow, but I reckon we have some super fine drills in the machine shop, drill few holes in the case say 5 mil deep and then I can make up some plugs a fe thou bigger, bag them in the holes for him and bingo, should expand the case thickness by a thou or two lol.

before u do anything give the whole engine a good wash with degreaser

make sure there is no track of oil on the case

then run it till its warmed up and return to flat ground and have a squiz at the engine to determine if it is the case joint or coming from higher up lkike the oil cooler or push rod seals or oil pump it may save an engine pull and strip

I'd try the sealer before doing any plug drilling. You don't want to upset the join as it could only produce more oil leaks by putting pressure on the case join and actually opening it up elsewhere. At least some sealer wont hurt anything, whereas the plug beside the split may fix it or may not and the magnesium alloy is very soft lightweight material that is easily damaged.
As Dave says, make doubly sure that is where the oil is coming from.