Acceptable Oil Leak???

[sig225]

95 Camry 2.2L

My trusted mechanic started up the car after replacing the timing belt, camshaft, valve cover and oil pump seals and discovered the engine leaks oil at idle or greater.

He tells me the oil pump should be replaced. The leak is about 1 quart per 1000 miles.

Is this leak rate an acceptable amount or should I replace the pump??

[ASG14]

1Q for 3k miles in unacceptable to me.

I loose about 1/4-1/2 quart over 7k miles with 131k miles.

[ghettosled]

what is leaking on the pump that wasnt fixed when the seals were replaced?
my 96 camry only leaks about 1/4 - 1/2 quart every 5k miles, and that is too much for me. damn you distributor o-ring!! your day will come...

[ckyle29]

Something sounds fishy here to me, like maybe your "trusted" mechanic needs some extra funds because he is behind on boat payments.

If the engine "only leaks at idle or greater" it means it leaks whenever there is oil pressure, which is whenever the car is running. If he did in fact already replace the oil pump seals, there should be no leaks whatsoever. There is only one o-ring and one gasket for the oil pump assembly on your car.

A broken oil pump won't cause a leak, only a bad seal/gasket will cause a leak. If the oil pump is broke, you just won't get any flow to your engine, but that has nothing to do with it leaking. And one quart every 1K miles is very excessive. Sounds like maybe he missed putting back one of the seals and is trying to cover his a$$.

It means tearing down alot of the parts he already had off the car, but any trustworthy mechanic would fix it for free. If he won't, I'd find another mechanic and think strongly about small claims court.

[sig225]

his contentiion is that the oil pump gasket is leaking this oil under pressure. And since a major teardown is required to replace the gasket...why not change the pump too??

Are these oil pump gaskets known to leak?

[ghettosled]

the oil pump o-ring and the shaft seal are known to leak over time, but that is it. going by your original post, he should have already replaced these when he did the timing belt. to remove the entire pump assembly takes much more work, but is certainly not a typical problem.

[flyeri]

No leak is acceptable(IMHO). Some useage between oil changes is normal and I think that may be what some posters are referring to. I had the oil pump o ring leak when I first bought my daughters car. You stated, your mechanic replaced the oil pump seals. Did he repace the o ring? you should ask him. You could see the stream of oil when the engine was running. You might also look at the cam shaft seal, the valve cover gasket, and the distributor seal. All of these are an easy fix compared to the oil pump. Both the distributor and cam shaft seals will leak when the engine is running.