Leak near rear wheel

Hi All, here's my first post - unfortunately..!

I have a TD4 53 plate and have sprung a leak underneath just forward of the offside rear wheel. Would appreciate some help on a lead as to what it might be. The fluid smells like diesel, gold in colour, but seems thicker and oily, as though it is maybe brake fluid or a hydraulic fluid of some sort. Have attached a couple of pics so you can see the general area. Looks like the fluid has spread through capilliary action around the various bits of bar etc, but I have circled where the drip seems to be coming from, which is the lowest part of a plastic housing of some sort, which I have 'arrowed'. Can you advise what might be lurking under here, or if it is a wild goose chase...? Am a very amateur hands-on kind of guy, but really don't want to start removing things yet if it is likely to be something serious. Hope you guys might be able to help......Cheers.

Have you filled the tank to the brim. looks to me like it could be a leak from the tank breather hose or filler hose.

Chaser, tank is nearly empty at the moment...

It will be a diesel leak. On a 03 both your fuel pump and filter is located under the cover you have indicated. Do a search on here on how to remove filter/pump.
Follow info and see if you can locate what is leaking.

OK, thanks booboo - I will take a look....

Have you removed the plastic cover to see where the leak originates,I dont think you'll find it till you get that plastic out.

Yep, Wulfie, that's the next job - thanks for replies - will post my findings...

OK, turns out it was diesel after all. Took wheel off, peeled wheel arch back, undid the 2x 10 mm screws, etc, etc. Turned engine over and watched to see what was happening - saw diesel gathering in the gap where the earth strap sits, but couldn't see the source of it whilst still attached to the car - must have been running down from somewhere.

Thought whilst I was in there I may as well change the filter as a potential quick £19 fix. And to confirm others' experiences, what an absolute tw*t of a job getting the filter out of the plastic housing. In the end, I too drilled out the rivets which held one of the vibration feet, in order to make room to hammer out with the aid of a socket extension - really tight and rust and corrosion from the earth strap didn't help. Drained the filter which did seem to have some mucky bits in there, drained the sedimentor which all looked very clean. The pump was 'dry' so luckily that didn't seem the be the problem. Even after cleaning out the filter sheath it still was a b*stard to get the new one in, even with copper slip and grease. Put it all back together, left ignition for a minute or so while the pump primed the sedimentor and filter, then turned over fine. And no leak thankfully.

With hindsight I wonder if there was simply a dirty or bad hose connection to the filter which was running diesel down it's length. To my knowledge it hasn't been changed before, so could have been the action of unplugging, cleaning and re-plugging in the hose connectors which was the fix. Not sure if the filter was responsible, but at least there is a shiny new one in there now. Went for test run and all seems OK. Only bollock drop seems to be that I found a rubber O ring in the tin which I emptied the sedimentor into, and wonder if it had dropped off from it's 'sump' plug. Now back on car! Could get it back on through the convenient hole in the housing, but the plug was nice and tightly screwed on so will see if that holds rather than mess about again. All took about 3 hours for me.

Hope this helps - thanks for the leads guys. Until next time......

:hippie: