Unsure of what to do after Mechanic visits.. oil leak coming from transmission?

[Liiiam 2]

Engine seized up as engine ran out of oil (no dashboard warnings) and was only 6k after last oil change (stick gave me 10k )

Mechanic replaces car engine long block (6k - first mistake of mine but didn't have the time to go through looking for a new car etc). Get car back and once home check the engine bay and it looks like it got bukaked with all the white stuff inside the bay. Next day driving to get lunch and car shts itself as per coolant leak photo.

Mechanic picks it up on tow truck. Get car back a few days later says something was loose all good now. 

few days later have oil spots on my driveway where I've parked, it's dropping from the transmission area. Mechanic said not sure where the leak is coming from and that they'll have to take it apart (at my cost) but that it's not a great time (was December 16th) - Said to monitor oil levels and bring back next year. Continue to drive and monitor the oil. Oil drops every single day wherever I park for a while after driving then stops, constantly check oil level and it's not dropping? take it to transmission specialist (see photo of their works/description) check oil level after they've done that work and it's showing bone dry, put 500ml in and it's just above the bottom amount. Finally get it back to original mechanic in February - Says leak is coming from between the transmission and the new long block they put in. 

 

Absolute shot in the dark but any lightbulbs shining of what it could be?

Any idea of my legal standings if I take this guy to small claims (he said I'll have to pay for these repairs as well)

[Vass 925]

Weird one. If leaking from between engine and transmission then the most obvious source would be the rear main seal, although normally it would be a pretty slow drip. Are you sure it's engine oil and not ATF?

Not sure of what the industry standard would be on that. If it were my car then I would have done the rear main seal preventatively as it's quite an easy job with the engine out of the car but an absolute pain if not. I guess at the very least would have expected them to inspect it prior to install and advise to replace if found to be weeping. Then again they might have damaged something during the install, who knows...

Weirdly enough, a colleague of mine has a 116i of the same chassis. Last year the engine gave up with apparent loss of compression. Replacement engine got put in under mechanical insurance, a few weeks later engine starts to overheat, gets taken back to mechanic, deemed to be a loose coolant pipe. Eerily similar story to yours, wonder if there's some common coolant pipe that's a pain to install or something...

[Liiiam 2]

1 hour ago, Vass said:

Weird one. If leaking from between engine and transmission then the most obvious source would be the rear main seal, although normally it would be a pretty slow drip. Are you sure it's engine oil and not ATF?

Not sure of what the industry standard would be on that. If it were my car then I would have done the rear main seal preventatively as it's quite an easy job with the engine out of the car but an absolute pain if not. I guess at the very least would have expected them to inspect it prior to install and advise to replace if found to be weeping. Then again they might have damaged something during the install, who knows...

Weirdly enough, a colleague of mine has a 116i of the same chassis. Last year the engine gave up with apparent loss of compression. Replacement engine got put in under mechanical insurance, a few weeks later engine starts to overheat, gets taken back to mechanic, deemed to be a loose coolant pipe. Eerily similar story to yours, wonder if there's some common coolant pipe that's a pain to install or something...

It has been a very slow drip, took over a month for it to drop below the minimum on the dipstick so you could be on the money with that. Definitely not ATF as well. Everything in that engine bay has been a pain lol, take something off and the plastic just disintegrates

[Vass 925]

Hey, at least you still have a physical dipstick by the sounds of it. They seem to be replacing those with just an electronic sensor nonsense on all the newer cars nowadays...