Gearbox oil leak

[Stevejspm]

Hi all,

Giving the car a (rare) clean today & parked it off the drive & onto the paved area outside my house.

Upon reversing the car back onto the drive I noticed an oil patch on the paved area. Shock horror! I checked underneath & where the plastic tray is underneath the gearbox I noticed an oil drip either side of an 'air vent' with 2 holes in, the oil was dripping out of each hole. I caught some on my finger, it's a golden brown colour & quite thin. Now I'm assuming its a leak from the gearbox? If so how much danger am I putting the gearbox under by driving it? I informed my wife who said " I told you a couple of weeks ago I noticed oil marks on the drive", I assumed it was from the previous house owners as we've only been here a few weeks. My wife also said that it wasn't leaking at our last house (or leaving marks on the drive). This means it's been 'indicating' a leak for 4 weeks at least.

Should I panick & not drive the car? Obviously I'll get it booked in next week to get it checked.

Thanks all.

[CondorX5]

Depends on how bad the leak is, really, as to how much oil you are losing from the gearbox.  If you could see it dripping quite steadily, that sounds like quite a leak - I wouldn't risk driving it as you don't know how much fluid has been lost already.  I think I would arrange recovery if it were mine - My 4.8 had a gearbox leak as well, but it was a much slower one.

[Stevejspm]

I did watch it for a while but didn't notice any increase in the quantity of oil leaking so I'm assuming it's currently a slow leak & there's only a few 50p size marks on the drive.
Thanks for the advice Condor, I'll get it checked in the week.

[Stevejspm]

Ok, got the car checked today. The leak is coming from a wiring loom entry point at the rear of the g'box. I've got it booked in for a week Saturday to have the sleeve, seals, g'box oil & filter change.
Hopefully it'll perform better after. I'll update once done.