Odd oil leak!

[TheInterceptor]

Howdy all! Bit of a long post sorry!

I have a strange oil leak happening here. So lets start from the top....
When i bought the car, all was well. Then after a while, i had an oil leak, a decent leak! The work carpark as well as home has good evidence of this haha. Service time came and i changed the oil to 10w 45 i think (slightly thicker than factory). The leak all of a sudden dissapeared! The leak seemed to come from the passenger side of the motor. No it wasnt coming from the oil pressure sensor! Weird!

Then all of a sudden...it stopped leaking one day! Strange....how does that happen? Anywho..ITS BACK but the strangeness continues. It only appears to leak after driving it on a hot day or after a very long drive! Ive stuck my head under and did not see anything of note. The sump is covered in the stuff, the bellhousing and swaybar also has a coating of it (this wasn't here when i did the service. Sump plug and oil filter are also snug and not leaking)
Today was 28 odd degrees, come home from work, park and shutdown, look for the leak and bingo! It began albeit a small drip that stopped after a few minutes, its coming down somewhere off the motor onto the sump and its dripping off the bottom of it. The amount it drips varies each time i park.

When i came back from Melbourne, i parked and i found a decent amount of oil under the motor! About a small saucer size after maybe 10mins of being parked!

Has anyone ever had this sort of issue?! I found a thread by HLC a while ago that i cant find again (as you do) who had the same issue but i dont recall a solution being posted.

The front of the motor is covered in grime also, from the balancer up to the rocker. No it isnt leaking from that bolt at the front of the motor thats a common leak spot!
Any ideas on what could do this? Maybe it isnt even heat related (youd think so), but thats what it appears to be. I can further confirm when Sydney has one of its sudden random cold days as it does.
Car in question is the AUII i6 wagon.

Cheers!

[EvilChief]

If its from the front passenger side, it will either be rocker cover or more like timing cover.

[Whoosha]

First step would be head down to Superbarn and get some $2 degreaser and clean the thing down , then you may be able to get closer to the source, Just spent 2 hours in 40c heat in melb doing the same thing on a mates AU wag. amazing after all the gunk was cleaned away what you can see, (his was the sender unit) yours sounds more like a gasket or crack problem that opens up when thing warms up , I would clean it run it then put it up on stands or ramps leave it running grab a good torch and start searching.

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by EvilChief

If its from the front passenger side, it will either be rocker cover or more like timing cover.

Dont think its the rocker, i spotted nothing. Timing cover mmm possibley.. doesnt sound like a fun job to do if it were it.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Whoosha

First step would be head down to Superbarn and get some $2 degreaser and clean the thing down , then you may be able to get closer to the source, Just spent 2 hours in 40c heat in melb doing the same thing on a mates AU wag. amazing after all the gunk was cleaned away what you can see, (his was the sender unit) yours sounds more like a gasket or crack problem that opens up when thing warms up , I would clean it run it then put it up on stands or ramps leave it running grab a good torch and start searching.

Thats what i was going to do next when i can get to an auto store, already finished a can i had on the front of the motor...didnt do a thing ha!...im assuming its been building up since forever! Was on my list to do next service.

Anywho. Yeah it better not be a crack! Will do as you say. I posted this thread to see if anyones had this before so i guess they have but theres no one common leak source.
Thanks!

[Evgeni]

For the passenger side, common leaks are from where the timing cover meets the block and the cylinder head. I just filled the spot in on my motor with rtv hasn't leaked a drop since.

Other possibility if not the oil sender could be the dip stick tube. 10mm bolt near the injector rail - the tube should have an o ring on it to seal it.

[TheInterceptor]

Oh yeah. Ill have a looksee at the junction!
Great! Havent thought of that!

But how can oil go from the side of the motor..to all over the bottom of the sump? Makes me think its coming from the front somewhere...like the front main seal??

Thank you!!

[Evgeni]

I would guess the half moon ends on the sump are probably leaking a little as well. They are more prone to failure as opposed to a crank shaft seal, but anything can be possible.
When your next under shine a light in the two recess holes at the back of the sump - this will give you some indication of whether the sump gasket has given up the ghost. If the back is leaking, chances are the front is as well if there is oil at the front of the sump and front cross member.

Good luck with tracking it down.

[TheInterceptor]

Ah bugger. Okay, recess holes, ill check them out.
Can i remove the sump from underneath by any chance to change the gasket?

Great, i must have a number of leaks happening all at once haha.

Thanks again!

[Evgeni]

Dont want to scare you - hopefully it is just a timing cover corner and a dip stick.
You can get to the sump, only after you remove the sub frame.
But do as Whoosha suggested and degrease - should give you a better idea of what your up against. Degrease, go for a drive, let it cool down and run your finger along joins.
But if your going under the car, check the recess holes and open the inspection plate to see if there is any oil in where the torque converter bolts are.

[TheInterceptor]

Haha its okay. Hopefully.
Ah bugger. I think that could wait till my RTV conversion which means the whole front end has to come out. Thatll give me plenty of access haha.

This i shall do!
Inspection plate?
Man I dont want to find the rear main gone too haha.

[mik]

once you get id cleaned up as per Whoosha`s post, i have found a digital camera a very handy device for looking at difficult area`s, you can take heaps of photo`s plug into the pewta and blow the images up, makes it also much easier to see under manifolds along head gaskets, water pump bolts,etc,etc .
if it has a bit of mileage on it , it might have more than one leak.


Not saying this is your problem but in my case i found the timing chain tensioner o ring to be leaking, at a glance it appeared not to be, it was`nt until i had exhausted every other avenue that i found oil ran down from the bottom side of the tensioner(very hard to see), oil worked it`s way down between the water pump and the timing case to the harmonic and left a mist of oil all over both sides of the engine, sump,transmission, floor of the car, it gave the impression to me it was the harmonic balancer leaking, which i replaced(did`nt need too), in my case it turned out to be a 50 cent o ring in the tensioner......... oh the pain.
ps i also found the alternator also was getting an oil bath from this one.

[TheInterceptor]

Thanks! Yes thats a good idea. Will do that. Car has 1455xx clicks on it so its not high milage haha. But by the sounds it may have one from the pass side and somewhere along the front half.

Oh that wouldn't have been fun. Noted though. Ill hopefully see where its bleeding from after the degrease. Doesn't appear to be dropping anything on the alternator thankfully!

[EvilChief]

Evgeni: timing cover is anything but fun, if its locator pins like mine either head or sump has to come off too. Timing cover on mine started leaking again and it will stay that way, its not coming back off. Toyota black will be its next and only stop.

[Evgeni]

Here's a couple of shots I had when my motor was leaking. This was around 180000. Now at 236000.

This was the result of the dip stick tube spraying oil all over the side of the block. That's where I put the rtv to stop the timing cover leak. It was running down the edge making it look like it was coming from the balancer. It was also leaking from the front of the sump.

Here is what it looked like.

[mik]

Is`nt it amazing how oil can run down from one area and look like it`s coming from somewhere totally different, good pics Evgeni.

[TheInterceptor]

That looks like a mess haha. Thanks for the pics! If Supercheap is open tomorrow im going to buy some degreaser and begin this wonderful journey.

To add to the problems, my air con compressor is now making loud knocking sounds when in use ! Oh well!

[Evgeni]

Yeah, someone dropped a meat pie on the front of my sump..lol

[BRADFORD000]

Check the timing chain tensioner. just looks like a big bolt under the power steering pump bracket

[TheInterceptor]

Thank you sir! I'll have a sticky after i drive it long enough. I attacked the motor with degreaser then a hose and wow, the amount of grime and oil build up was amazing! Ive driven it across town but there is no sign of an oil leak.

So will have to drive it longer or harder so it heats up if its not hot enough outside to make it leak!

[TheInterceptor]

So, did a few kms today and had a look. Nothing on the front of the motor. Great! So looked under. Thin as film of oil on the middle rib running down the center of the sump. The longer you drive in hot weather the more it leaks. So this time it was a tiny bit.
This is very likley coming from the front half moon "U" shape part of the sump. Couldnt see (not even with my camera) if its the crank seal though but this is what i could see:



So i guess the subframe has to come out. A job i dont have the tools for nor want to leave my car for days and pay a bit for it to be done. Grr stupid!

[badasgof]

As Mik has posted I had the same prob and there are stickies as to where to start and what to do I followed these and hay presto no more leaks.
I started by cleaning as said above and then removed the fans power steering pump and the bolt that holds the power steering pump passes through the timing cover and is just below the timing chain tensionier you can do all of this in one hit and it is not hard use silicone to seal do the centre bolt as well. Also the gasket that runs on the top of the timing chain cover can be sealed by the following clean along the gasket line with a fast drying cleaner(break cleaner) wait until dry with a tissue and Loctite 290 (wickin) run it along the gasket line to the intake manifold wait for it to dry and repeat without the cleaner this will seep in and reseal the gasket it took me about 2 and a bit hours to do.


Working on your Ford is like wetting your self in a dark suit it
gives a warm sense of feeling that others dont under stand.