It didn't occur to me until yesterday that I probably should've looked at the oil pump while my friend and I were changing the timing belt over the weekend. How often are you supposed to service them, if ever? And by service I mean replacing the oil seal or any gaskets. I just passed 216k miles which is why I may have a concern for servicing it if it's something people do regularly. The car has been driven all year every year for the past 12 years.

 

I don't think they can be serviced. They either work or they do not as far as I know. In your case it might have been a good idea to replace it AND the water pump while you had the T-belt off.

 

I change the seal every timing belt change. It is part #15 in the drawing below. It is cheap enough to justify this. Plus around 100k miles or seven years seems about right for the reliable life of the seal.

 

I'm not sure if you actually read my post but I said "by service I mean replacing the oil seal and any gaskets". And the water pump did get replaced along with the camshaft seal (that was cracked causing leaks) and the timing belt tensioner.

Damn... I really don't want to pull it off again JUST to replace the oil seal... I'll have to look into that when I get under my car again.

Is there any way to tell it's leaking without obviously taking the lower timing belt cover off? Should the oil be leaking into a particular spot? When we had everything apart, I didn't see any particular spots that were heavily covered in oil. Everything under the lower cover on my engine seemed pretty clean, nothing was covered in oil from what I can remember.

 

The lower TB cover has a little pocket in it that almost looks like it is designed to catch any oil leaking from the seal and then let the oil drip to the ground. If I saw oil on the ground beneath the lower TB cover and knew the seal had not been replaced in awhile, I would check to see that the seal looks like the most likely source of the leak, and then replace it.

No guarantees but like you're saying, I think monitoring the bottom region of the lower timing belt cover will be fine.

 

on beaters i run them till they stop working, on my built cars i replace them every time i rebuild a motor.

 

Thanks. I'll keep an eye on that.

Thanks all.