Oil Leak most likely culprit?

Hey all,

Have just purchased another mk1 Gti cab it's an 88 KJet 'dx' code engine and it has a rather big oil leak coming from somewhere behind the cam belt covers. I'm just wondering whether there are 'usual suspects' to look at given this sympton. I have taken the top cambelt cover off and the belts, side of the engine and covers are caked in oil. Problem is if I clean off the oil and try and find where it's coming from I can't really see as the belts and cogs are throwing the oil all over everywhere again. Ideally I guess I should take the bottom pulley and lower belt cover off to see more but I'm a little sceptical about this as I know what will happen if the belt isn't put back on perfectly!. Also, it is very difficult to see whats going on there due to the proximity to the inner wing -especially given that I haven't any ramps to get a good look from underneath. To me (not being massively technically minded) it looked like it was possibly the rocker cover gasket so I have changed that and it hasn't helped at all.

Is there a 'weakness' on that side which is worth looking at?

Any ideas/advice would be greatfully received.

Thanks in advance

there is the crank seal behind the bottomr pully

or at the the top there should be a rubber seal that is behind the cam shaft

these might be causing it :dontknow:

or the seal in the intermediate shaft

have a good look at the breather in the cam cover, they have an habit of getting gunged up and then oil is forced out everywhere

Thanks Jellybelly,

Are these bits hard to get/hard to fit? any advice on how I could go about tracking this down - do you think it's an engine out job?

Is the camshaft rubber seal the one that goes up and over the camshaft? If so I replaced that when I did the rocker gasket

Thanks again!

Thanks Early, yeah I checked and cleaned that when I did the rocker gasket and you are right, this really was gunged up   it took me a good half an hour with a wire brush and a full can of wd40

the seal on the bottom is a nightmare with engine in i think

i've only ever done it with the engine out

Thanks again JellyBelly, thought it would be  turns out that is now the least of my problems as it broke down today - a puff of smoke from behind the centre console then no power at all. A guy from the RAC came out looked into the problem then made it worse, there's now no power even to the hazards and the indicator light is on constantly…. oh the joys of motoring

Trying to get the bottom pulley off so I can have a 'proper look' but the bolts are stuck solid. I have tried the old WD40 and heat tricks to no avail, is there a way of 'locking' the bottom pulley as when I try and put the torque in to remove the 4 bolts the pulleys just turinng

Cheers all

You could try sticking it in gear and put the brakes on to lock the pulley.

Thanks buddy,

I managed to sort it by putting a bar through the camshaft pulley and locking it to the inlet manifold   . This took me a load of time compared to you guys who know what you're doing (most of the day) :redfaced:  even took the bottom pulley off and then tried attacking the water pump pulley WHOOPS! obviously had to reassemble to have a go at those bolts, which were a pain on there own. It's all a learning curve though right  :dontknow:

Thankfully the covers off now and it's all cleaned up, need to wait till tomorrow when the auto electrician sorts my electric prob out so it'll fire, then I can hopefully report the source of the leak (fingers crossed it aint the bad ones) I did notice a couple of things when I was cleaning it up not sure if this will help to identify the source of the leak. There was a pool of oil behind the distributer and rather randomly a 10mm nut  :dontknow:  Also behind the biggest cog (the one at the side of the cambelt tensioner) there's a spacer/shim which is loose(ish), you can rotate this independant to the cog. This doesn't look to be dropping anything but obviously can't really tell until shes spining.

Hopefully will know the extent of the problem tomorrow, but I can say that it's a pretty bad leak as the bottom of the car is CAKED!!

Thanks again for all the help!!!

UPDATE

The auto electrician has been out and has diagnosed the problem as the fusebox so PM'd someone who had one for sale, obviously car is a non runner so I can't check out the oil leak. One problem though, i'd given it a good clean yesterday with the expectation of getting it running today, only to find it had dropped more oil just through gravity last night. The oil was dripping off the sump plug (which I know isn't leaking) and it looks to be coming from the back of the engine but I can not get a good look. This car has recently had a new head gasket pre me owning it I'm just hoping that this was done properly  :wink: does anyone know whether it could be the headgasket if it's not milking up the oil?

The milky stuff usually happens when the head gasket fails at a point between the cooling and lubricating system allowing steam/water to mix with the oil and won't always show as an external oil leak. The head gasket could fail where it's just keeping the oil in but it would be less likely to drip when your engines not running.

Have you checked the sump gasket?

Thanks Robertson,

I guess I'm kinda in the process of checking the sump gasket as I've cleared off what I can so hopefully this will show if it's coming from above the sump - will not know till I check tomorrow.  Looking at the bottom of the car and given the fact that oil is all over and inside the cambelt covers even on the bonnet and scuttle panel etc I'm not sure whether the sump could do that  :dontknow: , certainly hope it could! as this is better than the alternatives by a long way!!!  Might just be me being pessimistic as this one has been a bit of a problem child  :dontknow: Also I know that there are massively different approaches to renewing the head gasket depending on who's doing it and this has had one recently. I mean if this overheated and they haven't skimmed the block to ensure flatness then this could be the cause. Am I right in thinking if it was the head gasket then it would also be loosing coolant even if it's not mixing?

Keeping my fingers crossed! I'm hoping to get it running then taking it to a garage and asking them to whack it up on the ramps so I can have a good old nosey

I'm just thinking of your sump gasket for the oil on your sump plug. Don't want to put a spanner in it but you might have two oil leaks….

Don't worry too much about the head gasket. It's not always the case that the block needs skimming for a new gasket unless it was warped or damaged in any way but if it's been cleaned up with the faces checked by someone who can and tightened correctly it should be fine. It is possible to loose coolant if it gets drawin into the chamber with a blown head gasket or damaged block/head, but you'd usually get more symptoms i.e. loosing water, overheating, even missfiring and would probably get worse fairly quickly.

Early-1800 mentioned the breather pipe, these can cause oil to end up in odd places and are usually easy to access and clean out.

I'm just thinking of your sump gasket for the oil on your sump plug. Don't want to put a spanner in it but you might have two oil leaks….

   You're only saying what I've been thinking mate so no spanners yeilded

Just found a really good post on here about removing and cleaning up the oil pump and sump etc, think I may do that so I can then cross another culprit off my list  

As always thanks for te help!

********UPDATE*********

Finally sorted the electrics and changed the sump gasket      ran the car in situ and let it get up to temp and go through the fan cycle a couple of times, checked for oil, nothing    let it cool down then did the same thing again, checked for oil, nothing    .  So I thought that i'd be brave and go for a quick spin so I could check after that……. got back and had a look, still just as bad as it ever was!     pouring out!. As you look at the camshaft side of the engine it's done the same thing, the side of the block from the camshaft all the way down is layered in oil. The oil run off/where it's dropping to the floor is from the bulkhead side of the engine if you look at it from the drivers wing. One thing I did notice is that the cam belt wasn't 'caked' in oil so I figure that the belt isn't distributing the oil round the block so I guess it's best to work from the top down?. Next to chalk off the list is the camshaft seals? has anyone done this, is it something which is easy(ish) fo the DIY'er to do?

Cheers for all the advise!!!

By the way, on the 'quick spin' the accelerator pedal just sunk to the floor on a dual carridgeway leaving me with no power. Pulled over and had a look and the grommit which holds the cable to the pedal had just disintergrated, thankfully I had a crocadile clip in the car so did a temp fix - This is now the 3rd time this has broken down in as many trips out   

SUCCESS!!!!!

I've replaced both the crankshaft and int shaft oil seals and this has stopped the leak that side   :mrgreen:  to be honest I think it was the int shaft seal as this didn't look to be in situ as well as the others - couldn't be happier! the only leak to sort now is the leak from around the bottom of the distributor. I tried putting an o-ring on this and it's made it much worse     I have been told that the seal is literally only paper thin and as such I should just make my own….. will give it a bash!, you never know this may mean I wouldn't have to keep putting in oil between services     But I can exstaticly confirm leak which prompted this thread has now been resolved!.

MikeyT said

SUCCESS!!!!!

I've replaced both the crankshaft and int shaft oil seals and this has stopped the leak that side   :mrgreen:  to be honest I think it was the int shaft seal as this didn't look to be in situ as well as the others - couldn't be happier! the only leak to sort now is the leak from around the bottom of the distributor. I tried putting an o-ring on this and it's made it much worse     I have been told that the seal is literally only paper thin and as such I should just make my own….. will give it a bash!, you never know this may mean I wouldn't have to keep putting in oil between services     But I can exstaticly confirm leak which prompted this thread has now been resolved!.

hey there this leak sounds similar to mine… glad you got it sorted… how long didi it take you to do the crankshaft seal and the int oil seals?
if you could give me a basic idea as to what is invloved, does the gearbox have to come out?
thinking of having a go at this myself…
cheers