Glenlivet12

I was wondering what some more mechanically inclined people thought about the issue I am observing on my 2000 Civic EX. The shop I brought it to didn't see anything and my inexperienced self cannot tell for sure. The post is lengthy, but detailed.

My car has about 156k on it and is stock. Sunday before last I had the oil changed. Monday, I drove to work and back. No issues noted. My commute is about 95 miles round trip, mostly highway (and that day kept highway speed most of the time). I got home around 5. I walk around the front of the car to leave the garage, and didn't notice anything amiss. Came out around 7 and I had oil seeping out from under the hood right where the driver's side headlight and grill meet and running down the bumper. Popped the hood and oil was all over the driver side of the engine bay from the master cylinder to the front. Didn't notice any oil on the valve cover, front, or back of the block. Looking at the underside of the hood and the interior, it appeared that the oil was under pressure, spraying up against the hood and out towards the driver's side of the car. It looked like the concentration was towards the front of the engine compartment from the pattern on the hood. I brought it over to the shop that did the oil change and they said they couldn't see a spot where oil was coming, even after cleaning things off and putting it up on the lift. The level was still good, so it didn't loose a whole lot of oil. They replaced the oil filter, thinking it might have been bad, but I don't think the oil would be limited to the right side of the bay if it was the filter.

So I went away for Christmas, and put new cardboard under the car to see how much oil leaked (it has a small leak from the pan that I know about) and there didn't appear to be much leaking from Wed. to this morning. The majority of the leak was on the left side, which is where I normally see it. Driving to work the last two days on each leg of the trip, I noticed a bead of oil that had come out of the hood around where the headlight and grill meet (same spot as where the "leak" was last time") and was pushed up the hood from highway speeds. There was a smaller amount starting on the front corner of the hood, again on the driver's side. The last two days at the end of the day I've popped the hood and wiped down some areas where there was what appeared to be fresh oil on the underside of the hood...there wasn't a lot. Again, the level seems fine. Looking around the block, the exposed belts appear to be free of oil, there is some build up on the lower part of the timing belt cover, the exposed top section is clean. I see what appears to be fresh oil in the grooves of the cover. Unfortunately they are in a tight spot to try and clean off and observe on the next trip.

So any ideas? I am not sure what would be pressurized, build up on the underside of the hood, and seemed to first present itself when the motor was off. The fact the oil seems to continue to get on the underside of the hood seems to indicate it is still under some sort of pressure. If it is a slow leak from somewhere, is it kosher to just keep driving with it and checking the oil every few days? If it is a cam seal or something it might not be worth the expense of fixing (maybe not for someone who knows how to DIY), but oil from a cam seal shouldn't be getting outside of that timing belt cover right? Also I wonder what could have caused this. I know the car isn't new and seals go bad, etc. but it is fishy that this happened right after an oil change. Could overfilling have caused it?

Thanks for the help. If something is busted, it would be the first "failure" this car has really had in almost 9 years and 140k of me owning it. Not a bad track record.

94EG8

Start it with hood open, rev it up, see if oil starts spraying, go from there.