Car seems to be leaking oil.

[Mursal]

Front crankshaft (behind the bottom pulley) oil seal lives behind the timing belt, so its quite involved to change. But that's worst case, can you actually see the oil on the engine from underneath?

Is it still as bad at it was?

I wouldn't worry about a small drip, if the quantity is manageable

 

[madder]

Timing belt is good for another 30k!! It would be a shame to have to get all of that out if they don't need doing. It's just gonna cost me a fortune!!

If it is that, then I'll try to just keep an eye on it and carry some oil in the car as normal. Maybe some sort of ''stop leak'' product would be helpful!!!

Hopefully it isn't as bad as all that. I have some cardboard under it at the moment anyway, with the wheels hoding it in place. I should get a good image of it tomorrow, and I'll post it up here. After that, I guess it'll be time to wash the engine.

John, if you are off on holidays, have a blast!!! Thanks for your help, as always. Yourself and Mursal are great!!

EDIT: Mursal, I haven't managed to see it yet, no. Tomorrows picture should tell us more and the once it gets washed I'll see what I can do. God, I hope it isn't from behind the belt!!

 

[madder]

Ok, so first of all, the mechanic who looked at the car has insisted that the CAT needs to be replaced before it breaks and falls off. I told him that the noise has been there since the previous owner had the car and that it passed NCT with that noise, but he seems adamant.

Now, on to the oil leak. I left some cardboard under the car last night and made sure it stayed in place with the wheel on top of the corner of it. IN the pictures below we can see the results. There is one area where the drip seems quite prominent. And then there are 2 other drips which are less prominent. One of the pictures(the first one) shows the tyre mark of the driver side front wheel, on the right hand side, which could help to determine where the leak is coming from? And the there is a closer photo, again with the 5C coin for size reference. The smaller marks which look like drips above the larger stain, on the left hand side, are holes in the cardboard. So, what do we think by looking at this? The car was parked there for about 15 hours.

 

[Mursal]

I wouldn't stress to much about that volume of oil, just keep an eye on the dipstick/drips. But that's easy for me to say.

I agree, no point doing the belt before it needs doing

 

[madder]

It actually seems to be less than the previous day? I'll wash the engine anyway as soon as I can, and try to get some pictures from underneath the engine. That might help with decisions too. The distance from the front wheel to the main spill, does that give any indication as to where the leak is do you think?

 

[Avocet]

How close is the leak to the timing belt? You just need to be careful that it doesn't get ON the timing belt (that can attack them and cause a premature failure). IF it isn't, I certainly wouldn't get out of bed for that volume of oil!

 

[madder]

I think the drip is fairly close to the timing belt. But I am not convinced that it is hitting the belt. I can't get the car jacked up to get a proper look but I will certainly wash the engine with a low power pressure washer and try to get a camera underneath to take some of my famous pictures!!! Thanks Avocet.

 

[Mursal]

I have heard that the likes of Mr Muscle will clean/kill oil on an engine, but you know yourself. The under tray will have to come off to see what's what.

Always support (wooden block/axle-stand) before working underneath. Do a shake test first.

 

[Avocet]

If you can get a finger under the guard (without the engine running, obviously!) and touch the belt at any point, it'll give a good indication of whether there's oil on it or not.

 

[madder]

OK, so I took around 30 photos of the engine from above the car(for a video slideshow), since for the moment, I have no way of jacking it up to get under it. First picture is the ground under the leak this morning, and the amount of oil that dropped after 12 hours parked. Some of the pictures are before cleaning, and some are after cleaning. Again, I have only sprayed the bits I could get at from above the car, with a low pressure power washer. Mr Muscle, and then water and fairy liquid. In the pictures, I have tried to show things that give perspective of what part of the engine you are looking at, by including the dipstick, or timing belt casing in the pictures. So looking at these pictures, if anyone sees anything that they would feel is relevant in trying to locate the leak, tell me at what point in the video(minutes and seconds) it is and what part you think it is!!! I’ll check the engine in a couple of hours and see if there is any evidence of a drip on anything that was cleaned up. Oil level in the dipstick is holding well since the change. Thanks.

 

[Mursal]

Cant see anything I'm afraid, some of the other guys might spot the source.

But its good the oil level is staying up

 

[madder]

Judging by where the oil stains are landing, I would say it's at the front of the engine, just behind the timing belt casing. However, how it spread back around to the back of the engine is a weird one? So I could very easily be wrong.
For what it's worth, I was out for a drive this evening, and when I got home I opened it up to take a look at the areas I had cleaned off. The dipstick is wet with oil again and there is wet oil on the tube just below the dipstick also. See this pic.....????

 

[madder]

My next step is this. The point where the engine connects to the Timing belt casing has a lot of oil on it. So, I took a picture of it and then washed it as best I could and took an ''after'' picture. The pictures are below. Maybe if oil starts to appear around here again, we'll have our answer???

and AFTER WASHING

 

[Mursal]

The rocker cover on the very top of the engine might take a tightening, no harm to try and see if they (the bolts) are a bit loose. Do them all a little at a time and don't over tighten. You can always go back and give them another nip.

You managed to get it really clean, how or what was the procedure?

 

[madder]

Hi Mursal. I haven't gotten under it yet. But I have cleaned any oil marks from where I can see down into it. Basically I used a low power air driven pressure washer. One of the garden washers that you pump the air into manually. I felt an electric one might be too much power. But I got all that I can see cleaned up nice enough. Any stains that were on the plastic casing for the belt, I just wiped them with a cloth while they were wet ad they came up nice enough. I finished the washing that I can see today, so hopefully, I might get some evidence tomorrow if something starts to show up.