picture of leak on 2001 corolla

[johnoh]

I have an oil leak on the passenger side and am hoping someone can tell me what its coming from.

Attached is a pic, with a red arrow pointing to the wet area. The camera angle needs describing - imagine you were sitting in the passenger seat and there was no windshield or hood, and you stood up and pointed the camera into the engine area, pointed mostly downward but also toward the right-front corner of the car. In the pic you can see the serp belt tensioner off to the right, and the exhaust shield to the left.

The leak drips straight onto the garage floor, just missing the plastic cover that you take off when you replace the serp belt. Any ideas? Thanks

[01loadedLE]

How many miles on it? Do you use synth, and if so did you switch from reg oil to synth recently? What size puddle is it creating on the floor, just the size of a quarter, a hand or bigger? My guess is a gasket leak.

[johnoh]

100k miles on it, spot on the floor is about 2 inches in diameter

[01loadedLE]

You use reg or synth oil, and if synth did you switch to it recently?

[johnoh]

always used regular oil, changed every 3k miles

[Bitter]

sort of looks like the timing chain tensioner cover, is it leaking from behind an oval shaped steel plate held to the head by 2 nuts ran down studs?

[JDM_jody]

oil type makes no difference. lol

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by JDM_jody

oil type makes no difference. lol

sarcasm warning


except that switching to a super thick oil (or using a 'leak stopper') will make it leak slower, thusly totally fixing the problem!


sarcasm warning

[01loadedLE]

I have seen on several forums a lot of people have had gasket leaks after switching to synth from reg on higher mileage cars so that is why I asked.

[johnoh]

I cleaned that area up and it still looks clean 24 hours later so the leak may be coming from somewhere else. I'll post again once the leak comes back.

[johnoh]

I replaced the timing chain tensioner (no o-rings in stock locally so I popped for $30 at the dealer for the tensioner itself) and the leak appears to have stopped

Bought the car from a guy on craigslist a month ago and he claimed to have just replaced the timing chain and tensioner. Tunrs out he only removed the old tensioner, coated the flattened o-ring with sealant, and reinstalled it. Not a good strategy.

[01loadedLE]

Right. Not a good strategy at all when the proper fix was only $30. If one is going to nickel and dime then it needs to be with shirts ect, not cars.