Narrative:

During takeoff roll on an ETOPS flight; I observed a 'left gen drive' EICAS amber warning. Airspeed was approximately 70 knots. Takeoff was aborted and we returned to the gate. As the airplane slowed on the runway; the EICAS disappeared. No other lights were observed. There were two previous write-ups for the left generator; and the oil reservoir had been topped off and the discrepancy cleared. There may have been more problems; but they were not in the maintenance history printout.station maintenance wanted to top off the reservoir and release us; but they had already reported an oil leak drip rate of 30 per minute; which maintenance control indicated was too high for ETOPS dispatch. Maintenance topped off the oil for the idg and had us start the engine and run it for approximately 1 minute. When they observed no drips; they said we could be dispatched overseas. The previous write-ups were 8 and 3 days prior. Maintenance control said no idg replacements were available. This was not acceptable to me.it was then proposed that we fly the airplane to ZZZ2; transfer to another aircraft; and fly to ZZZ1 that night; but before we could do that; our 757 would have to be defueled. Station maintenance thought we could take off and land over gross in ZZZ2; but dispatch indicated that this was not legal. When it became clear that we would be unable to land in ZZZ1 until approximately three in the morning; fatigue would be a problem; so the flight was canceled.I'm concerned that station maintenance recommended that we fly an ETOPS flight with an excessive oil leak on the idg; that we could plan a flight with an over gross landing; and that after a short engine run--maintenance control told me later that engine runs for leak inspection must be at least 5 minutes--they could sign off a repeat [chronic] write-up; despite the fact that no maintenance action had been taken to identify or fix the leak. It concerns me that local maintenance workers were recommending illegal and unsafe actions.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B757-200 Captain was concerned that local maintenance was amenable to questionable handling of a chronic IDG problem to facilitate an ETOPS flight. Maintenance reports suggest a more benign interpretation.

Narrative: During takeoff roll on an ETOPS flight; I observed a 'L GEN DRIVE' EICAS amber warning. Airspeed was approximately 70 knots. Takeoff was aborted and we returned to the gate. As the airplane slowed on the runway; the EICAS disappeared. No other lights were observed. There were two previous write-ups for the left generator; and the oil reservoir had been topped off and the discrepancy cleared. There may have been more problems; but they were not in the maintenance history printout.Station Maintenance wanted to top off the reservoir and release us; but they had already reported an oil leak drip rate of 30 per minute; which Maintenance Control indicated was too high for ETOPS dispatch. Maintenance topped off the oil for the IDG and had us start the engine and run it for approximately 1 minute. When they observed no drips; they said we could be dispatched overseas. The previous write-ups were 8 and 3 days prior. Maintenance Control said no IDG replacements were available. This was not acceptable to me.It was then proposed that we fly the airplane to ZZZ2; transfer to another aircraft; and fly to ZZZ1 that night; but before we could do that; our 757 would have to be defueled. Station Maintenance thought we could take off and land over gross in ZZZ2; but Dispatch indicated that this was not legal. When it became clear that we would be unable to land in ZZZ1 until approximately three in the morning; fatigue would be a problem; so the flight was canceled.I'm concerned that Station Maintenance recommended that we fly an ETOPS flight with an excessive oil leak on the IDG; that we could plan a flight with an over gross landing; and that after a short engine run--Maintenance Control told me later that engine runs for leak inspection must be at least 5 minutes--they could sign off a repeat [chronic] write-up; despite the fact that no maintenance action had been taken to identify or fix the leak. It concerns me that Local Maintenance workers were recommending illegal and unsafe actions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.