LionSpratt

Hi guys, I hope I'm in the right section
My car (2001 Honda Civic Ex) has been leaking a lot of oil for a while. We have spotted oil leak from a few places, and replaced the Valve Cover seal and the rear camshaft seal. But the car still leaks a lot of oil.

Trying to spot where the leak comes from, we have spotted oil on some areas, but can't figure out where it comes from.

I've attached two pictures. The first picture is the area underneath the EGR Valve (behind of it, standing in front of the car). We thought the oil coming from the bolt (I dunno how that bolt is called), but it doesn't. It drains down from somewhere above the bolt.

The second image is the area below the valve cover. As soon as you open the hood, you see that. That whole area has also traces of fresh oil.

Do any of you guys have an idea where the oil is coming from?

I'm thinking rear crank seal, but I just wanna be a little bit more sure before taking it to the mechanic.

lowlife9

that actually looks like the cam seal is still leaking. did you use oem and did you use hondabond ???

ezone

I'd clean it all off til its completely spotless and dry, then coat everything in white powder (bath talc is fine, so is foot powder or Right Guard). Then run it/drive it, and look for trails of leakage in the fresh powder, that should easily lead to and reveal the source.


VTEC solenoid gaskets? I can't tell from here.

LionSpratt

I don't really know what "oem" means, but I did buy an original Honda Cam seal.

The bond we used was not from Honda, but it was heat resistant, and we let it dry for 24 hours.

The cam seal area looks completely dry (compared with before, when there was a lot of oil where the seal is located.

LionSpratt

Yeah, someone else told me that VTEC solenoid gaskets leak a lot. I'll have to check that.

ezone

OEM stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer". When we use OEM in this reference, it is not a brand name, it refers to the brands that the car maker used, such as NGK, NTK, DENSO, BANDO, TAKATA, et al.

BEWARE of the brand name OEM when you see it at a low quality parts store that's open on Sunday....A crappy company uses that as their name and it stands for 'original engine management', it's all junk.

Gotta check the package, read about what applications the sealant is designed to be used in.

Most of the sealants we use on Honda engines are designed to be used between very close fitting machined surfaces that will have minimal movement during their lives,
and some other sealants are designed to fill in huge gaps that move around a lot....like on the ends of GM V engine intake manifolds.

I don't apply sealant to the cam plug when I install them.. No big deal though.

LionSpratt

Could you explain to me how to check if the VTEC solenoid gasket is leaking? ( where is it located?)

ezone

No.This I can do:


This one has the top half of the valve circled, you can see where it lives on the engine





This would be the complete VTEC valve removed from the head



And the valve taken apart to replace the rubber gasket under the electrical winding portion in addition to the big rubber gasket that's easy to change





The pair of gaskets typically look like these



But in order to get the small gasket from the dealership you have to tell them the part number you want because the catalog does not show it separately and the parts pimp will likely tell you to buy the entire valve for $400 instead of selling you an $8 gasket.



HTH

LionSpratt

Alright....thank you brother!

Ohyaimember

Hey first I just want to say that i have read through this thread and i am not intending to create any unnecessary work for anyone. That being said, i have a 2003 honda civic ex 1.7 v tech. I am almost positive that i am experiencing the same leak from the o-ring on the oil pump. A guy at autozone told me i had to replace the entire pump, and not just the o-ring, is this true? I understand that I will obviously need a new o-ring, as well as a timing belt just to be safe (my car has about 56,000 miles on it). Am i right that there is in fact no oil pan gasket for my car as well? The main intent of this thread is to ask for help from someone for a list of parts that i should replace when preforming this maintenance procedure. So far i am looking at the o-ring, a timing belt, some honda bond, and i know i will need a torque wrench. Coukd somebody please be kind enough to link some urls to the parts i need to purchase so i can be successful?

ezone

Since when does anyone at Autozoo fix cars?

Here's pics from a recent oil pump reseal I did....note the O Ring part number on the package:






Correct, the D17A2 aluminum pan is sealed using RTV...and so are the edges of the oil pump.
(D17A1 steel pan uses a gasket)

This one pictured above got the front seal replaced at the same time (may be called front crank seal or oil pump front seal)

Plus...Oil and filter.


You may want....Brake parts cleaner for some of the mess this job will create.
Rubber gloves, shop towels, drain pan, empty gallon jug(s), large storage bin plastic lid to catch drips while the pan is off or a huge sheet of cardboard.

Maybe...depending on condition...exhaust gasket(s) and hardware, torch, chisel, sawzall, earplugs for the kids so they can't hear you cussing.


For a basic timing belt service, you of course want the timing belt, you probably want the two drive belts,

maybe the timing belt tensioner assembly with spring (Honda part only----NO AFTERMARKET!!!),

Maybe water pump and coolant
maybe a valve cover gasket, front cam and crank seals. (at that low mileage they may be fine as is)


=======

There are many Honda dealers selling online at wholesale prices.

These sites (and several others, I'm sure) should all have parts catalogs so you can find whatever you need:

hondapartsnow
hondapartscheap
hondaautomotiveparts
bkhondaparts

Ohyaimember

Thank you for your help, this is greatly appreciated. So im assuming its worth it to just buy the pump and replace it, rather than the o ring to be safe? Once my tax return comes in i will start on this, and i will be sure to follow up with the results.

the dutchmen

Hey guys new here and I don't mean to hijack the thread but please help! I've got a 2005 civ 1.7 5 speed. I recently replaced the stock steel stamped pan with an aluminum one off of an si ( P.S. if you plan on doing this you need to grind down a small portion of your engine stiffener!!) After letting the permatex ultra grey set for 24 hours. Also yes I followied torque sequence
, then dropped the car off the stands level added oil and started er up. Low oilpressure light popped on for a split second then shut off. I was alone in the shop so I shut it off after letting it run for maybe 5 -10 seconds. I look under the car and notice that there is oil dropping from what may be the oil pan at the front main seal. So I jack it up start it look under it real quick and can see oil pissing out from what looks like the front main seal maybe? Possibly I knocked my oilpump sump and damaged one of the infamous oil pump seals or gaskets? Any ideas thoughts or opinions on what my next step would be will be greatly appreciated. Will try update with identical picture I found in google as to where it's coming from thank you in adavance!

ezone

I have no idea why the system ghosted your post....it's unghosted now.


No, I would not replace an oil pump unless there were a real and provable problem with the pump. We don't have inherent pump/lube/bottom end problems like some other manufacturers might. I have not replaced an oil pump in a Honda in the 14 years I've been in this dealership.

The engine in the pics had about 190k miles on it at the time the pump was resealed. It only NEEDED the O ring job. $1.30 for the O ring (plus installation), I'm certainly not replacing a $360 oil pump that wasn't bad in the first place.

ezone

I wish you wouldn't cross post duplicates and hijack a thread like that, but I'm glad you did because I would have never seen the ghosted post from Ohyaimember.