Oil Leak in my '96 Camry

[clower]

I have a 1996 Toyota Camry at about 146K miles - and I have had an oil leak under the front right side of the car for about a year. Most mechanics said to just keep the oil filled and it should be fine. The last mechanic said that it is an external head gasket leak and that it cannot be fixed. I just want some opinions on this and if it is something that should be fixed.

[arabianobsession]

Gaskets can always be fixed (or replaced, I should say) It's just kind of a PITA job is all. Is yours a 4 cyl. or 6 cyl.?

[hill8570]

First, never go back to that particular mechanic -- there's not an oil leak on the Camry that can't be fixed (OK, if the leak is caused by a rod punching a hole in the block, that might be a bit difficult).

Second, is this a 4-banger or 6-banger?

Third, forget the right- left- stuff...I can't ever figure out whos right we're talking about. Relative to the engine -- is the leak on the rear of the engine, front of the engine, driver's side of the engine, or passenger side of the engine? Feel free to be more specific, if it's in a very small area. Is just the engine oily, or are you getting drips on a particular part of the floor?

[pmesfun]

Pictures would help.

[clower]

It is a 4-cylinder. Relative to the engine, if you were to be standing in front of the car looking under the hood, the leak would be on the left side (passenger side) of the engine. The leak seems to be in one small area. The engine doesn't appear to be oily, there may be some build-up of some kind. I can upload pictures next week.

[bdy0003]

When did you last have your timing belt changed? It could be the seals there. I would change the valve cover gasket, the dizzy o-ring, and the engine oil cooler o-ring just cause they are all due if they werent previously replaced.

[Slater8756]

I was also encountered from the same consolidated problem of leakage of oil in my car from yesterday I don't understand how it is possible but here I found a better possibilities of avoiding oil leakage.

[clower]

Originally Posted by bdy0003

When did you last have your timing belt changed? It could be the seals there. I would change the valve cover gasket, the dizzy o-ring, and the engine oil cooler o-ring just cause they are all due if they werent previously replaced.

I had my timing belt changed last July. I am going to take my car in to be looked at by a mechanic here in town tomorrow, since my family mechanic doesn't think he can handle this severe of a problem. I would do all of this on my own, but I'm not experienced with this type of thing. Do you know about how much it would cost to have all of this done to my car? If anything, I bet they will tell me that I will need a new head gasket.

[bdy0003]

Look at your receipt from the timing belt change. See if it mentions any seals like camshaft seal and crankshaft seal. If you don't see anything of the sort, it might be where its leaking from. If the mechanic didn't replace these, the cost would be approx the labor spent on changing your timing belt. The seal is not very expensive. This is why its important to change everything while the covers, timing belt, etc are off.

Since you don't know the source of the leak, you might want to spray the area down with an engine degreaser and run the car a bit to see where its leaking from. From your previous post, you say the engine doesnt appear to be oily. It could be that the oil pan seal has deteriorated.

Don't forget to top off your oil as this engine hates to be oil starved. Good luck!

Originally Posted by clower

I had my timing belt changed last July. I am going to take my car in to be looked at by a mechanic here in town tomorrow, since my family mechanic doesn't think he can handle this severe of a problem. I would do all of this on my own, but I'm not experienced with this type of thing. Do you know about how much it would cost to have all of this done to my car? If anything, I bet they will tell me that I will need a new head gasket.

[clower]

So, I took my car into a local mechanic today - And they said that the leak was due to my oil cap being lose? I am not sure how this would have caused a leak for over a year now, so I will probably take it somewhere else and see what they say. They claim that after cleaning off the oil from the engine, that the oil leak was dramatically reduced, so I'm not sure about this.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by clower

I had my timing belt changed last July. I am going to take my car in to be looked at by a mechanic here in town tomorrow, since my family mechanic doesn't think he can handle this severe of a problem. I would do all of this on my own, but I'm not experienced with this type of thing. Do you know about how much it would cost to have all of this done to my car? If anything, I bet they will tell me that I will need a new head gasket.

Blown head gasket doesn't cause an oil leak.

Sounds like the usual seals under the timing cover. These really need to be changed out when the timing belt is replaced (otherwise, sure as shootin', they'll be leaking before the next timing belt change), but hardly shop does it unless you tell them to.

Four possible seals (might as well change them all if you change any): crankshaft seal, camshaft seal, oil pump shaft seal, and oil pump o-ring.

The seals are cheap, and the seal replacement is pretty easy, but getting to them is a lot of labor (equivalent to changing the timing belt) -- that's where the expense comes in.

Frankly, unless you do the work yourself, I'd probably recommend against doing the work -- it's not something that is going to hurt your engine, and it's going to cost as much as the timing belt replacement.

[clower]

So, you think that this leak is something that I could go without fixing? If I were more familiar with cars, I would try to fix it myself, but I don't want to end up doing harm to the car by trying myself. I am perfectly fine with adding oil every few weeks if you think that this fix would cost a lot, not do any harm to the engine, or not really be necessary.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by clower

So, you think that this leak is something that I could go without fixing? If I were more familiar with cars, I would try to fix it myself, but I don't want to end up doing harm to the car by trying myself. I am perfectly fine with adding oil every few weeks if you think that this fix would cost a lot, not do any harm to the engine, or not really be necessary.

How much oil are we talking about? I've put up with leaks of like 1 quart / 5000 miles for years at a time, doing nothing except leaving a piece of cardboard under the car. It's not the greatest thing in the world to do, but you gotta balance it against other uses for the cash. If this really is one or more of the seals under the timing cover, it will shorten the life of the timing belt, but not horribly so.

I'm not sure how comfortable you are with DIY work. It's somewhat involved, and I wouldn't recommend it for your first adventure under the hood. Unlikely you'd harm the engine, but you may end up buying a couple hundred bucks worth of tools and have the car out of commission for a couple of weekends while you take your time with the work.

[clower]

Originally Posted by hill8570

How much oil are we talking about? I've put up with leaks of like 1 quart / 5000 miles for years at a time, doing nothing except leaving a piece of cardboard under the car. It's not the greatest thing in the world to do, but you gotta balance it against other uses for the cash. If this really is one or more of the seals under the timing cover, it will shorten the life of the timing belt, but not horribly so.

I'm not sure how comfortable you are with DIY work. It's somewhat involved, and I wouldn't recommend it for your first adventure under the hood. Unlikely you'd harm the engine, but you may end up buying a couple hundred bucks worth of tools and have the car out of commission for a couple of weekends while you take your time with the work.

Well, I have to add about a quart every month or so, so it's manageable.

[vitec115]

Originally Posted by hill8570

Blown head gasket doesn't cause an oil leak.

I have a question on that,just replace the head cover gasket, the o ring in the distributor,timing belt,water pump,a/c belt. now i can see an oil leak in the floor right in the middle of car,i was thinking is the headgasket because the car overheated but u said that wont leak oil so im not sure...any idea on what could be leaking.