Sump looks damp

[Jepor]

Hey all 

I was just having a look at my inner cv joint earlier and I could see passed it to a sump , not sure if these is the main oil sump or the transmission sump , but I noticed it looked a bit damp around it , just wondering is this a bit of sweating , the car is driving well and have no oil lights coming on , it's been 45000km since last auto transmission service  . The car is a 2015 audi a6 c7 s tronic .  

 

Thanks 

[cliffcoggin]

There's no doubt it is leaking oil from somewhere. That will be expensive repair, so unless you need to top up frequently I suggest you ignore it for now.

[Jepor]

Never get an alarm in the car for low level gearbox oil , and no trace of any oil on the ground where i park , think it might just be a case of a sloppy mechanic when last serviced , which was 45000 km ago . And haven't had to top it up since . 

[cliffcoggin]

Fair enough, but if you began to see oil spots on the ground where you park don't delay doing something about it.

[Jepor]

Ya will do thanks . I'd imagine if it was leaking for a long time I'd have some alarm by now. 

[cliffcoggin]

I am not aware of alarms for gearbox oil level, only for engine oil level, but maybe I am out of date on that score. Maybe somebody else will chip in with an opinion.

[Jepor]

Did a bit of further investigation and something the scares the s**t outta me , what looks like a small hairline crack along the metal over the plastic sump , it doesn't look like oil is leaking out of it looks dry around it , can these cases get small hairline cracks that don't go the whole way through , so they actually don't leak ?  Surely the would be fluid marks running down from the crack , and there is also never oil on ground underneath the sump 

[Jepor]

Also the car is driving perfect,  no skipping gears , smooth gear changes , everything seems normal . 

[Jepor]

Looking at it closely I think it's just staining and not actually a deep crack , it's like the edges of wet staining.  The car is driving to well for me to believe that the gearbox is cracked,  When I look there is no sign of oil leaking down from the marks . That surly would suggest that it's not leaving oil out  .