Fitting oil seals

I have a couple of transmission output shaft oil seals, one front and one rear, to fit on my Skoda Octavia. I would usually lubricate them with engine or gearbox oil on fitting. However it seems to be common practice with VAG cars to fill the inner cavity of the seal with VAG G 052 128 A1 seal grease and the outer with a smear of oil. Is this necessary or is there a common alternative? As I already have what passes for a lubrication museum in my garage, I’m not keen to add to the collection!

Nic Hampson

The blue/green grease is specified by VAG to be packed into the rear of oil seals before fitting. It has been specially developed to enable long-term lubrication of the oil seals and is mostly compatible with the material used to make the seal. The reason for VAG specifying that the seal be greased is that it must not run without lubrication at any time.

A newly fitted seal may not have the necessary lubrication when first fitted, causing instant damage. In an ideal world I would recommend adding G 052 128 A1 to the collection of grease you already have, however if you already have a Polyurea grease for high-temperature, extreme-pressure conditions, that should do the job.