Hi guys,

First of all, my car is a Honda Accord, year 2000 (CG8), engine 1.8(F18B2), European model.

About a year ago I replaced my timing belt in my and as I was already seeing a small amount of "oil humidity" in the bottom of the engine, in the area of the timing belt, I decided to replace all oil seals near the timing belt: crankshaft seal, camshaft seal and front balencer seal. To my surprise, when I did the timing belt, all the seals were completely dry, but since I had already bought new ones from Honda, I decided to replace them.

After a couple of months, the leak started to get worst, occasionally leaving a drop in the garage floor. It's not very bad, but it's annoying to see the ground with oil drops...

At this point I started to suspect that some of the seals may have not been correctly installed. Last weekend I decided to remove the timing belt and inspect the seals. Again, to my surprise, all the seals were completely dry. Inside the timing belt cover, the only thing that had a small amount of humidity was the "box" around the rear balencer shaft, but not to an amount that would justify the leak that I have.

Before removing the belt, I had some suspicions about the oil pump, in particular the o-ring that goes between the oil pump and the engine block, but after this inspection, I suspect it might be the oil pan gasket.

I took some pictures of the leak which are pretty self explanatory. Please note that thare still some residues of CV axle grease in the rear of the engine block, since I had a torn CV boot a couple of months ago and still haven't cleaned it properly....

By looking at following pictures, what to you think guys. Is this a oil pan gasket leak? Or is it an oil pump leak?

 

It could be your oil pump but it looks like it's pooling from the water pump. I actually think it's your water pump leaking but you could need to replace your oil pump orings while you're at it. They normally sell an "oil pump gasket" kit that includes everything that includes your oil pump along with the water pump seals.

 

The pulley that you see in the right part of the engine is not the water pump, it is the rear balencer belt pulley. Also, the water pump is not lubricated with engine oil, just the lubrication of that exists in the bearing, so I don't believe the water pump is the culprit.

Actually that oil around the rear balencer pulley, I am not sure from where did it came. It could be very well from the outside, when I had the CV axle leak boot. Otherwise, it could be the oil pump, not sure

 

Power wash it all off, [oil] run engine for a bit to localize the leak, too much oil all over the place now to tell where it is coming from. 94

 

Do you notice how it has kind of a green or yellow tint to it, it looks like it's some sort of coolant not oil. Your best bet is to clean it all off with some brake cleaner and leave the covers off and check it again after running it.

 

Looks solidly brown to me. Also if there was coolant you would have white residue marks where it's dried with as much as you see around there.

It still all looks moist which is in line with oil since it doesn't evaporate.

I'm not familiar with the shelf of the block below the oil filter on this engine to know if poor cleanup can let the oil spread around like that from oil changes.

I too believe only cleaning it all up and run it a bit and see if you can pinpoint where the oil is coming from will prove fruitful.