Two weeks ago my dealer put the new Centa compensator in. Could only drive with this new Centa for about 200 miles due to nasty weather the last weeks.
Went riding today and saw some oil on the garage floor but not so much to worry about. Today when the engine was warm and every time when I started the engine after a stop, I heard a strange noise, only at the same moment as the engine fired. The noise was if you banged two lids of a pan together. As soon it was running all sounded as normal again.
We where riding in glorious sunshine and preparing and checking the route for our M3W Treffen next month. Suddenly I heard the horn of my wife’s M3W, who was driving behind me. “You’re loosing oil honey” she screamed to me. We stopped and looked back to a long oil track on the road. We looked under the car and the oil was running out of the housing where the compensator is in. In just about 2 miles I lost about 5 liters of oil. So not just a small leak.
Extremely lucky we found out before all the oil had gone. The tank showed almost empty after we stopped !!!! Can you imagine when driving just by yourself and nobody behind you to warn you ? Only three till five minutes and your engine is ready for the junk yard. So the attention of my wife saved the engine and a extremely costly repair.
But……….where is the oil coming from ?? The only thing i can imagine that the crankshaft seal is gone. But to my opinion this has nothing to do with changing the compensator. Or am I wrong ? Is it just a coincidence or……. went something wrong while changing for the new Centa ? And had the strange noise what I was hearing when starting the engine, has this something to do with this oil leak ?
My understanding is there is no oil in the compensator , so I would be looking elsewhere - Oil tank lid no screwed down ?
Tank lid was secure. And ...... when engine was running the oil came streaming out of the big hole in the compensator / clutch housing (see picture) So the only thing I can imagine is a badly leaking crankshaft seal.
My understanding is there is no oil in the compensator , so I would be looking elsewhere - Oil tank lid no screwed down ?
Tank lid was secure. And ...... when engine was running the oil came streaming out of the big hole in the compensator / clutch housing (see picture) So the only thing I can imagine is a badly leaking crankshaft seal.
Does sound like an engine oil seal or similar, provided all the hoses are still attached correctly, which would be the first thing I'd check.
But yes, engine does have to be split from the gearbox to get to the compensator housing in the middle, so there's plenty of opportunity to disturb something crucial. But I'd check ALL the oil hoses first, as that is simply the most logical and obvious cause. Crank Oil Seals normally leak slowly, not gush like a Texan oil find!
Laurens, I too would have to suspect the crankshaft oil seal at the output shaft from the engine assuming that the obvious things like the sump plug is in place and the external oil hoses are connected. I don't have access at the moment to my photos of the back of the engine when it was apart to change the compensator but I think that the oil seal is visible when you have it stripped down to fit the new compensator, so I suppose it is possible that it could have been damaged. It is also possible that a leak from one of the oil hoses up at the tank could be pouring down into the compensator housing through the opening on its top side where the steering rack sits; any oil getting in that way would pour out of the bottom but the leak should be obvious above the housing in that case.
