Estimates on output shaft seal replacement.
 

So after getting my a8 back on the road and sorted for the mot (except the fuel pump) today was the day. Turned up at the mot station and put her on the ramp. 10 minutes later the mechanic comes out and says "whats on fire" had smoke pouring from the cat so was obviously refused. I knew it was leaking but i didnt think it was that bad. So what prices has everyome been charged to get theres replaced? Can anyome recomened anybody in the stockport area? I may end up selling yet, £1000 anyone? :ROFL:

Think HPSauce had his done this week or last - hopefully will be able to say what the bill was, although it'll be with South East loading on labour rates!

Yesterday in fact, got it back today.
BUT I had both the rear and drivers side leaking and the pan. AND I had the fluid & filter changed as well, which requires removing the exhaust/catalysts on an FL D2 S8.
Also had the middle and rear diffs topped up as they are seeping very slightly (not enough to bother fixing, just top up).
Loadsa labour so loadsamoney. :-(

The seals were cheap enough, one was £12.44 the other £22.41 (+VAT).
And you might need the gearbox topping up, that's about £12 a litre.
Hour or 2 of labour maybe to get one wheel off, do whatever you need to to the drive shaft to replace the seal and put it all back, then check and top up the gearbox - I'm no expert! :rolleyes:

Thanks for that. Like you say 2 hours labour plus the seal it cant be more than £150 really? What do most places charge per hour i have no idea.

Depends entirely on where you live and if it's a local garage or main dealer - anything from £40-140 an hour!

You do really need someone who is familiar with the construction of the car. ;)
I think I'm paying about £60/hr plus VAT for labour and they're a VAG specialist with all the tools and knowledge.

Im a mechanic my self but i work on trucks and its fleet only so we dont deal with the public/prices. Id do it my self but with it being on the drive and not at work i really cant be arsed! :ROFL: id rather pay the £150+ for someone else to deal with the hassle locally.

Be careful, the new seal has a lip, and requires the new type flange with a groove to accept the lipped seal. This was re-designed in recogniton that the old design was too prone to leaking.

I dont know if you can still get the old type seals. From my experience I went to a place that didnt know, and they stuffed the new-type seal into the old flange, which obviously deformed the seal. Needles to say it was leaking again within a year or so. Next time round I went to 4Rings in Dartford and they put in the new type output flange as well, which costs around £120.

This:

http://forums.quattroworld.com/a8/msgs/32544.phtml

and this

http://forums.quattroworld.com/a8/msgs/56848.phtml

Very helpfull. Cheers+++

Just a quick question. Why did the MOT teater refuse to continue testing when it was apparent that the smoke was merely oil burning off on the exhaust with no danger of a fire? I hope he didn't charge you. My MOT man simply wiped the very hot exhaust system off with a rag and carried on testing, once he was satisfied that there was no danger of fire.

Secondly. Are you 100% sure it's transmission oil that's causing the problem? I had a high miled ABZ 4.2 engine start this lark last year, like you I blamed the tranny seal and had it replaced (about £165 all in if I remember correctly) Only for the car to carry on smoking! On further investigation it was found to be ENGINE oil leaking from the back of the cam covers down the back of the engine block via the bellhousing and from there onto the left hand cat. Once the troublesome gaskets were replaced and the engine was cleaned down the smoking stopped. I think all in the repair cost ran up to £320-330

Hope this helps

There was quite alot of smoke, more than enough to be worried as i was. so i just took the car of the ramp and headed home. No charge, i wouldnt of paid anyway as he hadnt really started it. The last owner did say it was the rocker cover but its a funny smell so it points to the shaft really.

Does anybody know wich oil i should order. Ive just ordered the seal for £13 and when i asked for the oil he said it was ATF. I thought it was different stuff?

It will depend what gearbox you have. Just get the proper appropriate ZF Lifeguard stuff, presumably you're topping up?

This is interesting if you have a 5HP box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si8HXqpgz9A

Just remember that there are 3 separate compartments for oil in the gearbox.
1.Gearbox itself that uses ZF Lifeguard 5 about 9.7l
2.Transfer box regular gear oil like GL4, GL5 80W90 about 0.7l
3.Front diff same as transfer box about 1l

If you are just looking to top up whatever oil leaked out because of leaking seal the you need regular gear oil. Also you have not said which of the output seals is leaking, is it one of the front driveshafts or rear output.

Which gearbox? I'm sure mine uses ZF-LG5.

Typing error, my bad, corrected now.

Good point about there being three seperate oil compartments. Just a thought I wonder if anyone has photos or an illustration to point the OP in the right direction of where these gearboxes leak from. I'd have thought there were at least three points. Front driveshaft seals (2) and rear propshaft/output seal (1)

I don't suppose it would be a bad idea to give some idea of where the all the fill/drain plugs are located either. Unless that's been covered by other threads.
At some point in the future I'll levitate one of my 8's on the ramp and take some photos.

Audipages has this on the rear output seal if it helps -
http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...placement.html

Yes ive got that printed off the audi pages. Thats why i was asking wich oil it takes because the drive from the gearbox is sent to the transfer box first and its the transfer.box thats leaking where it sends the drive out to the propshaft. It will be the gear oil (2) as i cant imagine them sharing the same stuff.

If you want Audi part number it is G 052 145 S2 for 1l bottle or G 052 145 A1 for 0.5l

Cheers again, saves me the hassle +++