Rear diff seals?

[Katrina15]

I had my current vehicle serviced at a Land Rover dealership on on Wednesday. It's a 64 plate evoque 2.2sd4 with 76700 miles.

I'm very fortunate that I only paid £253 for major service and MOT as I booked through 'bookmygarage' and the Land Rover dealership just so happened to be the cheapest offer under the Secret Service deal.

I joked with my partner that they would probably try and sting me with a ridiculous price for a repair because of the cheap service and MOT deal.

I got a video of my vehicle health check and the only thing they mentioned was weeping at the seals of the rear diff on both sides. He didn't say it was particularly urgent.

Then comes a phonecall from the dealership, telling me there are three 'urgent' oil leaks and mentioned the gearbox - no mention of this on the health check video?.... I asked for a price and they said £1800+. I told them i'm not in a position to pay for this at the moment as i'm on maternity leave. She said that's fine, we do offer 15% off vehicles over 3yrs old and a payment installment plan. I again said I can't at the minute. She said that they have a duty of care to tell me of any faults and said if I decide to drive the car in that condition then that's up to me. Regardless, I'm not stupid enough to book it at the LR dealership anyway without first getting quotes elsewhere.

I went to collect my car and asked to see the full vehicle health check and the quote for the 'repairs'. They conveniently didn't have it to hand and said they would email it to me. After chasing them for it, they have now sent me the invoice for the service and MOT but nothing else. There are absolutely no advisories on the MOT. When I was leaving, the man dealing with me said 'they advise I get the leaks seen to at some point. I'm obviously a little suspicious as I bought the car 12m ago, had it fully checked by my friend who is a mechanic at the garage I bought it from, and have only driven 4000 miles since, and the woman on the phone was telling me how urgent it is and they seem reluctant to send me the health check report or quote for repairs.

I've added the pictures... is this actually weeping or is it normal? Has anyone ever had these seals repaired? If so, could you give an idea of cost?

 

[Burnerman]

From what I can see there, there could be some oil misting but nothing of significance whatsoever.....if the seals were leaking then there would be drips of oil visible and splashes on the body underside.
No way would I have those disturbed.
John

 

[Mottie]

I had worse 'misting' than that on my Evoque - same model as yours but with half the mileage. The misting wouldn't have bothered me but as it was under warranty, I had it done at the main dealers when it went in for a service that was included in a service plan that was included in the purchase price. When I got it back home. I looked underneath it and they had clearly not touched it or checked the rear axle oil level. I phoned them and they said they 'forgot'. I took it back, got a free courtesy car, they kept it for a day and they did it (or said they did). Six months later it was back 'misting' again so I never bothered going back. It really didn't lose any oil in the following 4 years that I owned it and the misting was more visible than yours. I'd leave it alone if it was mine.

 

[Katrina15]

Ok thank you for your replies. I've had no drips or anything and given their reluctance to actually show me the report which apparently shows it as a 'red' on the traffic light system is making me feel that they're just after some commission on getting me booked in for repairs. The lad even asked me to score him a 9 or above on the customer service survey so he gets a bonus!

 

[cdbe]

They're not nicknamed main stealers for nothing. I bought a perfectly good, recently serviced and MOT'd car from my parents for £800, put it into the Vauxhall dealers for a fixed price cambelt and received a similar video with £1,600 of "urgently needed repairs" - must work for them more often than not or they wouldn't do it.

 

[Old Salt]

Find a good independent garage and stick with them. Independents rely on repeat custom and word of mouth recommendations. If the seals were leaking badly there would be visible wet oil runs or build up and advisories on the mot.