oil leaks... help?? :'(

[code14]

Howdy..!

I took my car into pep boys and they said they'll look for your leaks for $30... and since my car seems to leave a good amount of oil all over my driveway, I decided to try it out...

They came back and told me I'm leaking from my valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, and the cam & crank seals.

I ... first of all have no idea what any of those are. But I was wondering if these are pretty simple to do or not. They wanted to charge me $136, $442, and $306 & $26 respectively, and quite frankly, I can't afford that at all.

As far as the valve cover gasket goes, I thought I had changed those because my spark plugs had oil on them and someone suggested that replacing those could fix the problem. The thing is, I remember picking up 2 valve cover gaskets from pep boys... but this time the guy said I only have 1 valve cover gasket. Is he talking about another part?

Anyway, thanks in advance for the help guys!

See ya around

 

[Mrbaboon]

Cam and Crank seals are about as easy as changing your timing belt. (Same amount of shit to be removed). Your cam seals are on the front of your camshafts, behind the cam gears. Your crank seal is behind your timing gear on your crankshaft, which is behind the crank pulley.

Valve covers can be done in 20 minutes as they are right on the top of the motor. This is a big leak on our cars, fix it first with new bolts (get rid of stock ones).

Oil pan involves either dropping the subframe or pulling the motor (very involved). PITA.

 

[theKnifeArtist]

well covered baboon.
so you say you got your valve cover gaskets changed not too long ago? if your gonna do it yourself, use some kind of RTV and new bolts as baboon mentioned.

 

[CSquared]

Howdy..!

I took my car into pep boys and they said they'll look for your leaks for $30... and since my car seems to leave a good amount of oil all over my driveway, I decided to try it out...

They came back and told me I'm leaking from my valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, and the cam & crank seals.

I ... first of all have no idea what any of those are. But I was wondering if these are pretty simple to do or not. They wanted to charge me $136, $442, and $306 & $26 respectively, and quite frankly, I can't afford that at all.

As far as the valve cover gasket goes, I thought I had changed those because my spark plugs had oil on them and someone suggested that replacing those could fix the problem. The thing is, I remember picking up 2 valve cover gaskets from pep boys... but this time the guy said I only have 1 valve cover gasket. Is he talking about another part?

Anyway, thanks in advance for the help guys!

See ya around

check the torque on the valve cover bolts... they have a tendecy to back out and leak all over the damn place. I actually got a hex cap set from my local ace hardware and haven't had a problem since... I recommend.

Before you look into the oil pan gasket i would check the front main, cam seals, and oil pump driveshaft seal to make sure there isn't oil soaking the pan from those locations.

 

[code14]

yea, as far as the valv cover bolts go, i guess i'll go and replace them. but i'm still confused as to what the pep boys guy was talking about. he wanted to charge me $70.00 for the valve cover gasket. I asked him if that was the price for a pair, and he said the car only has 1 valve cover gasket.... are we talking about different parts???

anyway, thanks for all the help!

 

[Back2Basics]

I dont know what he was talking about, we have two valve cover gaskets as there are two separate covers - one over each camshaft.

 

[CSquared]

yea, as far as the valv cover bolts go, i guess i'll go and replace them. but i'm still confused as to what the pep boys guy was talking about. he wanted to charge me $70.00 for the valve cover gasket. I asked him if that was the price for a pair, and he said the car only has 1 valve cover gasket.... are we talking about different parts???

anyway, thanks for all the help!

Nevermind pep boys... i would rather have a chimpanzee service my engine with a hammer. If you are going to have someone else do the work, bring your car to a REAL shop.

 

[CampbellsChunkySoupra]

i got my valve cover gaskets from a carquest dealer for $34.

 

[Halsupramk3]

the pep boy was probably talking about the center valley gasket in between the valve covers. be sure to check if the valve cover "set" has the rubber washer grommets for the bolts. bought separately they can be expensive. you will also have to retourque the new ones as a few heat cycles will take up some of their elasticity.

i have pulled my engine three times to fix oil leaks. i still have a small one. i think the synth oil is leaking out of the separating section of the dip stick tube. hopefully i dont have a hairline crack in the block.

dont fix a oil pan gasket leak till you have determined the cam covers and front cam seals are good. then do the front main seal. all of these can be done with the engine in the car. it is best to remove the engine to do the oil pan. the rear main can be done then at the same time.

in rare occations the oil can leak out between the head and block under the head gasket as there is oil in each corner of the head.