MG4 Reduction Gearbox Oil Leak

[Steve Chope]

Who are you talking to and which comment have you edited?

I was replying to your question about ‘ was it Gary Smart? To which I replied, ‘ No Ella!’ The comment I edited was the original one which you picked up on.

 

[Deleted member 9692]

I was replying to your question about ‘ was it Gary Smart? To which I replied, ‘ No Ella!’ The comment I edited was the original one which you picked up on.

Ah, OK. Strange I can’t see that your post was edited, normally it shows that. Anyone else getting that?

 

[Les burrows]

Hi well today another week has passed since I took a look at the oil leak poll so today it stands at
62 votes

32 have no oil leaks or have not seen any that’s up 1 from last week

6 had a leak from being overfilled same as last week

24 have a leak but don’t know the cause same as last week.

So as you can see very little has changed or owners have not voted
Les

 

[Les burrows]

Hi Les - Although both you and me would think this be the sensible thing to do, purely on the face of it.
I am afraid the cash flow of the dealers, would dictate a different approach.
A lot of dealers where expecting a big uplift on their through put of actual sales at the back end of 2021 and again at the start of 2022 ( Given the volume of orders they had already received ).
However, due to the unpredicted huge lack of availability of actual cars, their predicted income for this periods, has under achieved massively to target sales.
They did receive a life line when MG released the MG4 only a few months ago and promised delivery of around 2,000 cars before the end of 2021.
Reviews of the car have been very positive and this has also increased the demand for the car.
Some LONG suffering customers of the ZS EV ( Gen 2 ) have given up and either ditched their orders completely, or switched across to the MG4 as well.
Therefore, as soon as ANY new car ( sometimes unexpectedly ) arrives at the dealership, they want it into the workshop and out of the door ASAP - so they can receive some type of revenue.
They are VERY unlikely to have enough storage space, to accommodate storing all of the MG4's awaiting the modified breathers to be honest.
Stored cars don't pay the bills unfortunately.
It's really not in their interest to find problems on the PDI checks. if you get my meaning.
Get them delivered and THEN deal with each complaint, completely on a "one by one" basis.
Installing of the modified breathers will be dealt with on a similar premise I guess.
Adopting a similar mind set, that surrounded the ZS EV ( Gen 1 ).
Cars with know "buggy" software applied, that was causing huge range and power issues.
They dealt with this problem in the same way, purely on "one by one" scenario.
Customers who presented with the issues, had their cars updated, those who did not report any problems, never received the update or got contacted personally.
Hopefully getting picked up at the time of service - maybe ?.
I bit of a "Don't ask, Don't get" type of situation ?‍ .
I was actually told this fact by my local dealer.

Hi Jeff I agree with all you have written here and has I said in my posting I don’t lay the blame with the dealers on this one, but I’m sure it would help to easy this issue for both owners and dealerships if MG Motors issued a statement as to what and when they are going to do something about the issue in a proactive manner and in doing so wipe away the now very many Conflicting things that are being reported over many platforms now including this one.
This is not about sales figures and targets or margins it’s about keeping customers happy and generating new ones.

Touch wood I have not seen any oil on our drive way from the wife’s MG4 SESR as yet after around 500 miles but I will be having another look under it tomorrow weather permitting, but it does have a quite large bulging gap in the under tray which I hope MG are going to rectify probably at service or maybe when they decide to change it if that is what it needs and that’s according to a post here some way back now,

A few days ago a chap said to me while I was in a car park hows the car I said it’s nice and he then said I believe they have stopped selling any more of them as they can seize up because they have bad oil leaks, so after I explain to him about the situation and that they are still on sale, where did he get that information from I asked, he said they had been talking about electric cars in his local pub and others where saying them new MG have bad oil leaks but what else would you expect from cheap Chinese crap that’s not so cheap, then he said to me he would never even dream of having any electric car as they are dangerous thing to be in if you have a crash as the batteries can blow up like an atom bomb I give up.

Word is getting around Jeff and it’s not all good MG need to do something far more positive then they are before the Mark gets damaged or branded in the wrong way.
I hope you can agree.
Les
Ps please excuse any bad grammer or spelling I’m on my phone iPad is in for repair. ( no it’s not leaking ) just flickering somtimes

 

[wiz043]

Hi well today another week has pass since I took a look at the oil leak poll so today it stands at
62 votes

32 have no oil leaks or have not seen any that’s up 1 from last week

6 had a leak from being overfilled same as last week

24 have a leak but don’t know the cause same as last week.

So as you can see very little has changed or owners have not voted
Les

Yep...and this is not the only MG forum that has discussed this oil leak issue. It goes right back to when they were first delivered in the UK and has even been mentioned by car reviewers. Dealers saying there are only a few having this problem or they have never heard of it are being er...deceptive in my view.
Now we are hearing that it is an oil overfill issue for European cars or a new revised breather needs to be fitted and these are currently being manufactured to fit to unsold models or cars presented with the issue but there will not be recalls at this stage.
I don't think MG really know the solution as it seems to be a 'suck it and see' trial at the moment.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Ah, OK. Strange I can’t see that your post was edited, normally it shows that. Anyone else getting that?

I've gotten into the habit of finishing an edited post with

EDIT - I changed <stuff>

 

[colsky]

Dealer has phoned me today saying that my car will be ready to collect on Monday. I asked about the oil leak, and he said they are only replacing the breather on cars that display the leak during their initial checks.

I did tell him that seemed unlikely, since people seem to have indicated that the problem only shows up after a decent number of miles have been driven, alongside some slightly faster speeds. I also asked him to have a look for the under-tray bulge while they were at it.

They said that their service guys were surprised that I was even aware of the issue in the first place!.. I advised him that there's a nice 60 page thread on here with more than 1 or 2 people reporting the issue...

We shall see what they see.. Chances are the answer will be "nothing is wrong"

With the oil leak, I think you need to ask them if they have done the empty and refill to a lower level procedure. A dealer has previously said that the oil empty and refill is now supposed to be part of the MG4's PDI. He also said that the fitting of the new breather wasn't really necessary, and was just a "belt and braces" thing.

So if this is being included in the PDI correctly by the dealers, and if the overfill really is the cause of the leak, then collected cars should not have this problem surely, even after driving a few miles.

 

[Alb]

The only change I'd want to see would be the design oil level together with a modified breather.

 

[PeteC]

With the oil leak, I think you need to ask them if they have done the empty and refill to a lower level procedure. A dealer has previously said that the oil empty and refill is now supposed to be part of the MG4's PDI. He also said that the fitting of the new breather wasn't really necessary, and was just a "belt and braces" thing.

So if this is being included in the PDI correctly by the dealers, and if the overfill really is the cause of the leak, then collected cars should not have this problem surely, even after driving a few miles.

I was told mine was drained and refilled to the lower level. I've just stuck my hand on top of the undertray and it's come out oily. I've not seen it drop any oil yet but it's obviously on the way. I've only done about 300 miles.

 

[colsky]

I was told mine was drained and refilled to the lower level. I've just stuck my hand on top of the undertray and it's come out oily. I've not seen it drop any oil yet but it's obviously on the way. I've only done about 300 miles.

So if that's the case, then that seems to indicate that they're wrong in thinking that the overfill is the (sole) cause of the leak, and they should be fitting this new breather as standard.

 

[AndyL61]

On one of the FB groups just seen a photo of the new breather so it must now be available.

 

[AndyL61]

Here it is.

 

[PeteC]

So if that's the case, then that seems to indicate that they're wrong in thinking that the overfill is the (sole) cause of the leak, and they should be fitting this new breather as standard.

Taking it in on Monday for them to confirm that it's leaking. Then the dealer can raise it with MG so that they can fit the new breather.

 

[Ian Key]

I was told mine was drained and refilled to the lower level. I've just stuck my hand on top of the undertray and it's come out oily. I've not seen it drop any oil yet but it's obviously on the way. I've only done about 300 miles.

Unless they didn't clean the undertray ?

 

[PeteC]

Unless they didn't clean the undertray ?

I'd checked before now and not noticed any oil, but you never know. I'll find out on Monday when they take a look.

 

[Hallix73]

Here it is.

Just emailed my dealer and told them to get mine ASAP. Thanks for the picture, where did you get this from did you take it yourself?

 

[AndyL61]

Just emailed my dealer and told them to get mine ASAP. Thanks for the picture, where did you get this from did you take it yourself?

From the FB group.

 

[Macadoodle]

So it's just a bit of pipe in a dog-leg shape. Well, if it works that's all that matters I guess .
Quite how this flaw didn't show up in the testing of this reduction box is still a mystery, maybe the 200ml overfill is indeed the root of the problem ?
The big ring gear on the diff does seem to be in line with the breather, so too much oil would be slung all over the vent hole at speed.
The 900 or 700ml question really needs to be nailed down though because a needless overfill will impact on efficiency .

 

[Ian Key]

So it's just a bit of pipe in a dog-leg shape. Well, if it works that's all that matters I guess .
Quite how this flaw didn't show up in the testing of this reduction box is still a mystery, maybe the 200ml overfill is indeed the root of the problem ?
The big ring gear on the diff does seem to be in line with the breather, so too much oil would be slung all over the vent hole at speed.
The 900 or 700ml question really needs to be nailed down though because a needless overfill will impact on efficiency .

According to the FB post it's been refilled to 750ml

 

[Macadoodle]

According to the FB post it's been refilled to 750ml

Good lord, is that the final answer I wonder or do they want to phone a friend ?