Rep Power: 0

'99 Civic LX sedan, all factory, no modifications. It has been leaking oil lately. My mechanic said it was a loose oil filter. That didn't fix it. Then he replaced the oil pan gasket, that seemed to fix it at first but within a week I knew that wasn't the problem, it is still leaking. Obviously I am not in a hurry to take it back to this mechanic. I added oil this morning and saw a lot of oil or grease as shown in the pics. Is this the cause of the leak, normal, or a separate problem?

 
Rep Power: 243

It looks like its your valve cover gasket and/or Cam seal. Also the spark plug seals. I had similiar oils spots and I replaced all three of the above and leaks went away.

 
Rep Power: 280

It looks like the main cause is your valve cover gasket.

Really easy to replace.

 
Rep Power: 188

Yup as others have said. Good opportunity to paint the cover red or something

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay, thank you all.

Any instructions on how to do it myself? Maybe a YouTube video? I would like to be able to do as much myself as I can but I also don't want to unknowingly screw something up and cause even more damage. Any help appreciated.

 
Rep Power: 243

Haynes Manual, or service manual. There are YouTube videos of similiar Hondas, all the same idea. Easy DIY (just don't loose anything)

 
Rep Power: 0

Thank you all. One more thing, if you look at the bottom two pictures you can see that on the bottom right corner of the valve cover there is a bolt missing. Is that a vital one? Obviously they are all put there for a reason but is that one I need to worry about replacing?

 
Rep Power: 517

There is not supposed to be anything there. Leave it alone. It would be for a ground wire to attach on other versions that use this engine.


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The leaks look like rubber seals need replaced, typical deterioration over time and heat cycles. They harden and shrink, can't seal effectively any more.

In addition to the valve cover gasket job, check the oil cap. See if the rubber O ring is missing from it, they seem to fall out sometimes.

At the rear of the head, it looks like the distributor area has a bunch of dirt and oil mess collected underneath it. I'd replace the O ring around the distributor housing where it slides into the head.
I'd also pull the dist cap off and make sure there is no oil coming from inside the dist.

Check out the heater hose that is just under the distributor. It may be oil soaked, that is very bad for the rubber. Replace it if it is wet, soft, swollen--- you do NOT want to blow up a cooling system hose. You can overheat that engine in a matter of seconds and trash the engine if it bursts open and dumps all the coolant out.


I'd start with cleaning everything spotless with brake cleaner or the like, clean and dry. Then apply plain talc powder (or spray powder, like Right Guard) to every area, this will help show leaks as they show up and make it much easier to see where they start.


Would be nice to see underneath it, see if there is something else leaking that you cannot see from above.
What you have pictured here doesn't look like a major leak, by any means.

Oil pressure switch bad?

HTH