96 camry still leaking oil form distributor !!!!

[DOOSAM]

Camry 1996 LE 4 CYCLINDER 5SFE. 150,000 MILES

Hi,

Replaced the distributor (5SFE) shaft O ring (seal) twice at different garages in last 3 months but oil is still visibly leaking from the distributor. Inside of distributor cap , there is no oil. Why is oil still leaking from distributor ?Please advise.

Thanks.

Sam

[Mister_Perkins]

sounds like improper installation of the O-Ring on the Distributor shaft to me. Are they applying grease before installing it onto the shaft and again before installing it on the motor?

Either that, Or the CAP the holds the Distributor shaft in-place is starting to leak making it seem like a distributor seal issue

[RichieRichJP]

I thought you only had to oil it, not grease it?

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by DOOSAM

Replaced the distributor (5SFE) shaft O ring (seal) twice at different garages in last 3 months but oil is still visibly leaking from the distributor.

It's not from improper installation. My 95 does the same thing after three attempts to fix with OEM o-ring. It's either improperly machined o-ring groove or mis-manufactured o-ring. There have been other complaints here about this problem. One poster found a slightly larger o-ring that fixed it, but your local parts store is unlikely to carry one, you'll need to go online. I tried a couple of OTC o-rings but they were too big to allow installation of the dist. shaft. Do a search on this and you might find the post about where to get just the right size larger o-ring. You can also try soaking the o-ring in brake fluid which might swell the rubber and give you a better fit.