Still leaking after new core plug and oil seal
 

After discovering a sudden and serious oil leak coming from the weep hole of the gearbox bell housing of my 2003 D5 and, after reading everything I could find on the subject on this forum, I decided it must be the core plug above the crankshaft that had come loose.
I bit the bullet and pulled the gearbox clutch and flywheel to find the core plug turned in the housing. I replaced the core plug with a new metal one from Volvo and to be on the safe side replaced the crankshaft oil seal. The oil seal Volvo supplied was of a different construction to the old one but it fitted fine.
After putting it all back together I thought job well done only to discover a week later engine oil was still leaking badly from the gearbox weep hole.
I have read on the forum members suffering the same problem when a main dealer carried out the work and returning the car to volvo to put right but I've never found out what they did.
Could it be a pressure build up in the crank case pushing oil past the seal due to a blocked oil separator? Any ideas would be most welcome.

Thats a bugger, its another strip down if its not over pressure.

DDN

Hmm. When my core plug went the slave cylinder was also leaking. Did you change the slave cylinder too?

Presume you're sure it's engine oil and not brake fluid?

Ta

It is definitely engine oil and I changed the release bearing clutch and flywheel a year ago. If only I knew about the core plug weakness then I could have done that at the same time in 5 minutes flat.

I am pretty sure the core plug is ok now but I must have messed up the crankshaft oil seal. It went in fine but I didn't have the special insertion tool 9997174.
Anyone know where i can borrow/buy one from as I don't want to mess it up again?

could be box oil??

If it is the crank seal, the spring may have rolled off the back of seal lip, they do that very easily. Then, the seal can pucker or lacks grab and can weep.

they can get nicked on a scrap of rust as they slide onto the crank...

The clutch should survive as the oil doesnt get thru the flywheel.


If u try a marigold glove over the oil filler - tether with some strong bands around fill neck.

It will inflate but shouldnt keep going or blow off.

You could mod a scrap filler cap with a 1bar clock from the bay. I started this but didnt need.

Thanks for your replies. I've decided it must be the seal - I think the spring coming off is the most likely scenario as I didn't use an insertion tool.
As I need to fix it this weekend I don't have time to wait for delivery of a tool so unless I can borrow one from a main dealer (extremely unlikely) I will make one on my lathe based loosely on the one in the link.
I will try and post some pictures once the nightmare is over!!
Thanks again

I tapped my crankshaft seal in with a drift, lots of oil on all parts so it eases in.

DDN

I always do put lots of oil on but I've also heard that some types of seal have graphite impregnated into them and are designed to go on dry with the first few turns of the crank bedding it in. Interestingly VIDA doesn't mention any lubrication prior to inserting which just feels wrong to me.

So unless anyone tells me otherwise it's plenty of oil !!

watch out for it skewing when you tap it in, some very suddenly, shoot in one side kinda jumps in with a tap.

If you could make a tool which looked like a U shape it may be possible to tap it in striking 2 sides at the same time and may go in more square, less likely to skew.

If they sit a little skewed they wear relatively quick