Hi All,

Just got a focus mk1 and noticed few drops of oil on the drive. Had a look underneath the car and the underside of the car is full of oil :(

Please help!! not sure where its coming from, I assume its transmission fluid as its red.

I have taken some pictures, pls have a look. Any ideas on how much it would cost to fix will be helpful.

The car has only done 35k miles..

thank you all in advance.

thats a substantial leak its not the driveshaft oil seal so its either further up the engine if thats from the gearbox possibly it needs a new gearbox oil plug on it

Hi artscot79,

Yeah, it is not the drive shaft seal. I can't locate where it starts from as it seems to be starting from somewhere on the top of the gearbox!

Photos 1 & 4 make it look like it's coming from the end casin gasket (easy fix) however life's rarely that simple, I'd unclip the big black plastic cover at the front of the box which covers the gearselector cables. I think you might find the bottom selector shaft sel is leaking.

thank you for your response flying clutchman. I too feel as if it is coming from somewhere behind that black box! Any idea how much damage this would do to my pocket? The gear shift is still smooth though..

I've seen a few focus leak from here. I've never changed one of these seals but I think you could remove the knuckle on the end and then prise out the old seal. You can easily check, just unclip the front cover and look at the bottom selector.

Just had a look inside the black box and there is no leak from there. What are the chances of power steering fluid making a mess like this? There was an advisory on the mot that the power steering ram is seeping. Also I just checked the power steering fluid and its loosing some.

Well, it's a possibility as the fluid is red. Mk1 Focus gear oil is not normally red, but sometimes people put it in. You could try getting it steam cleaned then look to see where the fresh oil is coming from

The power steering fluid is red. I am getting a steam cleaner today and will update on where its coming from.

Update.. I cleaned the major places that was messy and driven for a couple of days. Today I had a chnce to put it up a ramp. It's not the power steering :) , its the end of the gear box that's covered with a black metal cap. Any idea how much this would cost?

Update.. I cleaned the major places that was messy and driven for a couple of days. Today I had a chnce to put it up a ramp. It's not the power steering :) , its the end of the gear box that's covered with a black metal cap. Any idea how much this would cost?

It's the end bit in pic 4.

That's what it looked like at first sight. You'll just need a new gasket for the end cover