annoying oil leak

[deathandwar]

:confused:hello all, my defender is driving me around the bend with this oil leak, it comes out of the bell housing so naturally one would assume rear main seal. no worries punch on with the gear box, throw a new rear main plus gasket and a clutch to boot. put all back together and still leaks. show a few people who tell me must be the rear main, start doubting myself as to whether i buggered the seal. take apart again armed with another rear main seal and gasket, this time on a hoist. nothing visually wrong with rear main .put all back together again, degrease the bejesus outa everything, oil leaking from bell housing. question.... what else is there or does anyone know what the issue could be

[alien]

What motor are we taking about?
If it's a TD5 there are a couple of regular offenders.
One is the 1/2 moon of the rocker cover gasket, it will run oil down the rear of the motor.
The other is the fuel regulator, it drips on the starer motor and gets blown towards the motor/bell housing join.

The other possibility is gearbox input seal, if it is it should have been seen when the box was out.

[jboot51]

On a 300tdi the T seals on the rear main bearing cap could be a source.

[Don 130]

When I did mine, (300 tdi) I was advised to use RTV and not to use the gasket, as the gasket often causes a leak.

Read on from post #4
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-1/180397-300tdi-rear-main-again.html

Don.

[steane]

Did you check the front seal on the gearbox? If that leaks it will run out the same hole.

Or it could be like my FIP leak which blew under the car and made me think I had a t seal leak and an oil leak from the gap between the flywheel and clutch housing. Looked like engine oil, felt like engine oil and even smelt like it but made no sense. Pump leak got bad enough for me to pick it as an issue and when fixed my oil leaks disappeared...