Hello everyone. First post here. My wife's 97 accord wagon has an oil leak. It's not terrible, but occasionally it smells as it's near the exhaust. I've attached pictures to help diagnose the leaks location. I can't really see where it's coming from, from above or below.

stats: 97 accord vtec wagon, 220,000 miles, everything works flawlessly, and we looooove this car. new timing belt about 40,000 miles ago, I'll have to dig through records to find the exact date. we're planning to keep this car for as long as possible. it's fantastic !

wants: find and fix the oil leak, the front end has just started to get a little loose, may be time for tie rod ends (PLEASE, I WANT TO FOCUS ON THE OIL LEAK ONLY IN THIS THREAD) - and of course to enjoy another 80-90,000 miles in this fantastic machine !

Everywhere I can get an eyeball, the valve cover gasket is dry and clean. This is the only noticable location for a leak. If you need more pictures, please ask. I'll post them today.

Oh, my level of experience wrenching: I do all our maintenance; 89 toyota pickup (165,000 miles) self-installed new timing chain, suzuki gs500 motorcycle just completed my (20,000 mile) valve adjustment, and this fantastic honda with 220,000 miles.

Thanks for all the advice from the more seasoned owners.

The car:


The valve cover:


The suspected leak area, drivers side, near the timing cover, but obscured:

 

Your first 2 pictures are totally useless, except for wasting website bandwidth.
The 3rd pic shows oil on the side of the block, and any reasonable person would follow the oil trail UPWARDS to the source.
An old plumber told me that liquids are affected by gravity.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondadude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your first 2 pictures are totally useless, except for wasting website bandwidth.
The 3rd pic shows oil on the side of the block, and any reasonable person would follow the oil trail UPWARDS to the source.
An old plumber told me that liquids are affected by gravity.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wow, "ueseless" is harsh, but we all have opinions. Guess that's one persons' way of saying they don't know, or aren't familiar.

I'm looking for positive input as to typical gaskets/seals that cause leaks in this location. The forums search function turned up allot of distributor links, but I don't think this is the case here.

Thanks everyone

 

any reasonable person would follow the oil trail UPWARDS to the source.

Yeah, sure I don't have a clue about working on Hondas;
http://www.freewebs.com/hondad...R.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/hondad...a.htm



Modified by hondadude at 10:51 AM 3/13/2008

 

you gotta take this place with a grain of salt.

hondadude is right... it shouldnt be that hard. on the + side, your engine bay looks clean so it shouldnt be that hard to find. ur pics really dont help.

if its coming out of the upper right side(timing area), my guess would be the cam seal.

if its coming out of the back, another common place is above the oil filter. the seal aroung that oil pressure sensor.

could be as simple as a valvecover gasket though. GL

 

OK, hondadude let me stress the things I thought were simple enough to follow again, then I'll point out a couple things.

Neke1point0 - Thanks ! I'll look into the parts fiche and see where those things are in relation to the leak. And google for parts for availability.

hondadude - What can I say ?

Sounds like you enjoy a spirited debate, cool. Let's do that. Here are the points you brought to light:

1) You're stuck on the pictures, bandwidth, etc.

These were the best pictures I could take close to the source. I could have described it in 1,000 words, but no thanks. Since you don't understand how bandwidth works, I'll explain it. When someone allows a host like photobucket to share their pictures with the world, photobucket carries the bandwidth. It's called linking, and honda-tech.com doesn't experience any increase in traffic by it. Easy thing to miss, but it happens, I understand.

2) Following a leak to its source is a time tested method that works.

Agreed. I am not removing the accessories at this point, but only gathering information, and opinions. That was stated in the first post. Maybe you missed it. No biggie.

3) Without so much as a hand shake, you've assumed I'm not reasonable.

That one is a shame. We could get along pretty easily I'm sure, well, within reason of course.

4) You provided links to other tutorials, which you may have actually authored.

Cool ! People that can put together tutorials to share are a great resource. While it was about as relevant to this THREAD as chicken soup, I guess it served to show you're not a rookie at something. I never questioned your experience or abilities. Maybe you question your own enough to feel the need to justify it ? If you'll notice I said maybe you weren't familiar with the area of the leak, not life in general, chicken soup, or honda antenaes, as you link provides you obviousely -do- know them. Keep in mind people aren't always questioning your abilities, and I certainly wasn't.

If ya wanna match points, it's cool. I'd rather just fix the wagon

 

you said a mouth full OHGOOD, but if you really wanna get fixed i'd eighter take it to a shop or you jack up the car put it on jackstands and look around for your oil leak culprit. if it is your cam seal you may need to remove you timing belt cover to be sure. BTW when you changed your t-belts did you replace your seals(cam seal, crank seal)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jmumblez2001 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you said a mouth full OHGOOD, but if you really wanna get fixed i'd eighter take it to a shop or you jack up the car put it on jackstands and look around for your oil leak culprit. if it is your cam seal you may need to remove you timing belt cover to be sure. BTW when you changed your t-belts did you replace your seals(cam seal, crank seal)</TD></TR></TABLE>

thanks for the pointers jmumblez2001 -

I took another look today, looks like it may be in the cam area, I think you're right about that seal.

Planning for a full timing belt job, seals, h2o pump, etc. and then tie rod ends. The drive shafts were replaced around the same time as the timing belt, but were OEM parts, and still look great.

We're having a really hard time finding a WAGON that can replace this car. Fuel economy, reliability, comfort just isn't there in the stuff that's offered now.

Thanks again everyone.