My car is leaking oil : ( - Honda Prelude Forum

neoekai · 05-29-2002, 11:42 PM

My car got 84k miles, Today after moving my car i notice thse huge oil stains, I believe its leaking on the driver side, im guessing teh Cam seals but im not sure. I check the oil and it was rigth below the low marker.. ......

oh yea, i started using synthetic oil after using regular for awhile, i didnt know this was bad until recently when someone mentioned it, could this be the problem???

Can anyone tell me what i should do, how hard is it to change the cam seals ?

ekai

brendon2k · 05-29-2002, 11:54 PM

Switch back to regular oil. You can only only usally switch to synthetic if you are under 50k. The thinner synthetic can leak if it is not used from near the start.

neoekai · 05-30-2002, 01:16 AM

What damage is caused if i go from regular to synthetic, And can i even go back to regular, i heard that once you go synthetic you can't go back, is this true?

PreludesR4Speed · 05-30-2002, 03:40 AM

stay far, far away from synthetic before it is too late. my friend just switched over to synthetic on his last oil change. The engine consumed the synthetic much faster than it did regular oil, and he was running his car the other night and spun a bearing because he had hardly any oil in his engine.

jpprelude · 05-30-2002, 06:01 AM

Could it be your balancer shaft seal? There was a recall on that awhile back.

SiLudeH23A · 05-30-2002, 07:55 AM

i got 68k miles do you think it would hurt if i changed my oil now?? its time for an oil change what should i use?

ludeact · 05-30-2002, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jpprelude
Could it be your balancer shaft seal? There was a recall on that awhile back.

exactly what I was going to say, this could cause that, If you haven't get it in ASAP.

neoekai · 05-30-2002, 11:03 AM

i had that fixed, i believe they just installed something to reinfoce the seal

So does anyone know if its safe to switch back to regular oil?

The Acclude · 05-30-2002, 12:37 PM

I went through 3 quarts(8 total) in the last 3500 miles with 10w-30. I switched to 15w-50 and Ive only been through 1 quart so far. /me thinks its teh synthetic, and it sucks having to buy more oil, but I have heard its not good to go back to dino oil.

brendon2k · 05-30-2002, 12:56 PM

You should be fine switching back. As far as comsumption I don't think synthetic should be much worse, I think you notice more loss because you develop leaks. If you want to run a good oil in your car I would reccomend a sythetic blend, it is a little better than regualr oil but shouldn't give you leaking problems.

SLICK96 · 05-30-2002, 01:04 PM

Check those cam & engine seals... I've switched back and forth a few times (the dealer changed my oil w/o me knowing), and the cam seal is the only problem I've ever had w/ oil leaks. Do you change your own oil? If not, I recommend doing it yourself, so you know you're doing it right, and not letting some monkey do it.

J

Mark94 · 05-30-2002, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by brendon2k
You should be fine switching back. As far as comsumption I don't think synthetic should be much worse, I think you notice more loss because you develop leaks. If you want to run a good oil in your car I would reccomend a sythetic blend, it is a little better than regualr oil but shouldn't give you leaking problems.

I definitely recommend using a synthetic blend in your car. If the car has over 50,000 miles and you want to switch to a better oil use the blend. A pure synthetic will cause all the problems already mentioned because the seals have already been conditioned with a thicker dino oil. The synthetic oil can easily pass through these established seals.

neoekia, look on your distributor side of the engine for a leak. The distributor side cam seal is notorious for leaking. Mine was leaking badly and I would find a decent amount of oil on the ground every morning. I replaced that seal and the problem has been solved. Even though the leak is from the passenger side it dripped in the middle of the car. Check it out and replace it soon if that is the problem. I bought the STR cam seal from summit racing for about $30.

If you have not changed the timing belt yet and plan to do it soon, then I would do all three seals at that time because it is much easier to change the two seals on the driver side while the belt is removed.

It's not difficult to do yourself, but I let a professional handle it because I wanted to make sure it was done correctly.

Good luck.

Mark

bgod · 05-30-2002, 01:19 PM

if your cam seals are leaking, check the valve cover. you'll have oil residue on there.

it could be almost anything from your oil pan gasket to an engine gasket.

i'd jack up the car next time you have it parked over night and look to see where the leak is coming from.

as for synthetic/dino. really depends on what you need it for. i use to be big on synthetics for a good 4 years. but i'm using dino now. the benefits of synthetics when changing oil at 2500 mile intervals like i do isn't there. also, most of the big time oil names such as mobil 1 has gone cheap with their mixtures. the only true synthetic oils these days cost upwards of $7+ per quart.

and yes, you can switch back to dino after going synthetic. but when changing oils, just take it easy the first few hundred miles.