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[r.welfare]

After spending most of the morning with the car up on axle stands, Gunk, and a hosepipe (!) I think I've spotted where the oil is leaking from on my Elite.

It appears to be coming from behind the alternator, dripping down onto the lip of the sump, and then onto the floor when that 'fills up'.  When being driven, there is a smell of hot oil too, so I assume it is getting sucked onto the exhaust manifold.

The alternator had to be removed when I changed the offside knock sensor a few weeks back, and took quite a few whacks with the hammer to free off it's mountings.  Coincidentally, the oil leak started when it all went back together...which is why ClarCE and I were puzzled that my breathers weren't blocked and the cam covers didn't appear to leak when we changed them recently.

Has anyone else suffered such a leak, or knows how it could be fixed?  Does the lower alternator bolt pull together the top part of the sump, or something?  I had a go at tightening it again, but if you have taken one out you'll know it's a swine to get a 15mm spanner on the back nut to tighten up the E14 bolt at the front...

[Marks DTM Calib]

Can you get the timing over off and look for the presence of oil around the cam shaft seals?

[r.welfare]

I'll have a try, but probably not until next weekend now.  Was thinking of removing aux belt and tensioner, bagpipes etc to take a closer look from the top...

[Marks DTM Calib]

Try removing the top two bolts and slacken the bottom two off that hold the cover on, ease the cover back and look through the holes in the cam sprockets for signs of oil.....

[r.welfare]

Will have a try on Sunday and report back - presumably this is a big job if there is oil around the cams?

[Matchless]

Have you replaced the camcover seals recently?

When applying the black sealant it is easy to block small drain holes in the bearing caps which leads to pressure build-up behind the camshaft oil seals as I found out recently

If there is any sign of oil weeping around the top cambelt cover bolts thats a dead give-away.

[r.welfare]

Cam cover gaskets were done a few weeks ago, however car started leaking before then.  Pretty sure ClarCE put the goo in the right place, he's had plenty of practice  

There's no oil weeping around the top cambelt cover bolts coming through to the outside, but I will loosen them up tomorrow to look at the sprockets.  Definitely coming out somewhere behind the alternator though.  There's a small pool on the offside of the sump 'lip' as you look at it from the front.  I believe that airflow through the engine bay then deposits the drips at the back, off the sump plug.  Sump plug is definitely leak-free...

Interestingly, I took the car this morning to pick up a wardrobe for my wife (fair swap...) and upon opening the bonnet when I had stopped (20 mile run), there was a little oil smoke from below the oil filler.  We checked the seal when the cam cover gaskets were done and it seemed OK.  There's a wire/pipe just behind and below the oil filter which seemed a bit oily yesterday, could be related?

[chris-b]

Hi, i have the same problem,
i have changed my drivers side cam gaskets as i had a slight weep and smoke coming from the manifold,
but since doing it the rockers seem fine but i have a big pool of oil all over the top of the sump at the front?
 i have today(sunday) replaced the rocker gaskets again so am waiting to see what the result is going to be tomorrow.
fingers crossed, if not it sounds like the same problem as you!

[Markjay]

Just a reminder that oil leaking from the Oil Pressure Switch on the lower left-hand side of the block can get drawn upwards due to air flow when driving and look like an oil leak from the side of the front engine cover (mine did). The point is that you would normally expect an oil is leak to go from top to the bottom, and not upwards...

From what you describe, I doubt if this is the case here, but I am mentioning this for the benefit of anyone else investigating an oil leak reading this...

[Marks DTM Calib]

The usual suspect appears to be the application of to much sealent around the front bearing caps.....it can block up the small oil return passages from the front cam bearings and as a result the you get full oil pressure pushing on the cam seals resulting in a leak.....

[Matchless]

There are eight drain holes, one each side of each camshaft front bearing cap, shown circled ....




These holes must not get blocked when applying the black sealant or when the sealant is squashed out by the camcover rubber seal.

[ians]

Cripes, that's easily done if you don't know about it.

Can that pic be added to the maintenance guide pls?

[Marks DTM Calib]

It will be later once I can edit it and add a few extra symbols....

[Markjay]

Crikey!  

TIS2000 actually shows the whole flat area as needing sealant application, not just the front bit. I suppose if you spread it very thin as opposed to the ‘blob’ method that might just work…

I however followed Mark DTM’s guide and used the blob method, I didn’t see the drain holes and obviously didn’t even know they were there, so I didn’t make a point of leaving them clear – hopefully I didn’t block them…  

On balance, the ‘blob’ method seems far safer than TIS200’s thin coat all over the flat surface, but as said you need to mind that gap (sorry the hole).

[chris-b]

OH my god :-?
What muppet designed such a stupid place for us diy'ers to block up with gunk!
so far so good on my second gasket replacement.
Next problem sounds like my drivers side front wheel bearing is going as got a funny whining noise from up front!