Can't find where the oil leak is!!!

[cougarhunter]

I have a 95 toyota camry that I've been working on fixing a stubborn oil leak.

I replaced the oil pan gasket and the valve cover gasket as they were both leaking. And I had a place replace the timing belt and I told them that it was leaking oil and to fix it. So I got it back from them after the job and it's still leaking from the right side passenger side. So I took it back to them and asked them to look it over again and fix the leak. So they went in again and replaced some seal that I guess isn't standard to replace on that car. The seal was brittle. And they still charged me for that. It was in the timing belt assembly and they didn't notice the first time it was leaking.

So I saw the car was leaking oil still. It's dripping on the passenger side. And I jacked it up and looked under it and the whole backside of the motor has wet oil all over it. Some how it's dribbling down and running to the right side (passenger side) of the motor. There is no oil in the antifreeze. I'm wondering if the distributor is leaking oil. I saw a little bit of oil between the valve cover and the head. Which is making me wonder about how good of job that valve cover gasket replacement I did on it went. When I first worked on the car it had every imaginable oil leak possible. And that's what drives me nuts is that I fix something and it doesn't make the leak go away just gets a little bit better. Very frustrating. Is there any ideas on what more it could be?

[TWO-VEE-ZED]

If you haven`t pressure washed your engine first,starting from the bottom and working to the top,do so now.It`ll save you a LOT of guesswork and cash,as you can see the trail much easier if the engine is clean.

[ghettosled]

do what two-vee-zed said. when you replaced the valve cover gasket, did you use some RTV in the points near the distributor notorious for leaking?

[babyjoker33]

check the power steering pump and the holes that connect to it you could have a bad holes.

[retiredat44]

our 1993 camry with the 2.2l engine had a horrendous oil leak, at least it looked really bad,,
we bought the car used, so I did not know the complete history..

the oil had dirt caked up in it so it made it really really bad ont eh back side and bottom and frame..

i found the valve cover was only hand tight, and so loose it did not need a wrench to unscrew the bolts..

I took off the cover,, cleaned it up really good, bought a new gasket including the spark plug washers int he gasket hit for $20.00.

and it seems to have fixed the leak, but since it was so dirty, it will take 20 cleanings to get it clean enough to make sure there are no more leaks.
I read about this engine notorious for having all kinds of oil leaks...

it seems the desighners have tons of gaskets nears pumps and housings in the worst places..

and it is extremely hard to get to the places behind and under the engine..

[cougarhunter]

Yeah I used some RTV on the ends of the valve cover. I don't think its power steering fluid as the fluid level isn't dropping in the reservoir. I will try cleaning it because oil is all over the backside of the motor. I did buy some Semi-Circular Plugs for the ends of the valve cover that you put RTV on it. Waiting for them to get here. And I was going to replace the distributor o-ring and the cap and rotor. They haven't been done before so I figure it's part of maintenance.

[babyjoker33]

my fault on that check the oil pump,or maybe u just have a bad value cover it could be bent somewhere.and your oil filter.