Today was the first day with temperatures below zero (-5 celcius to be exact), I went to work with the car and didn't notice anything weird. After work I got stuck in a 10 mile traffic jam. After 20 minutes of driving at low speed I started to smell burned oil and the warning light went on and off all the time, luckily I made it home before the light turned on permanently . The oil leakage is at the drivers (left) side of the engine and only appears to leak when the engine is running. Any suggestions to the nature of this problem are welcome.
Probably the o-ring between the oil cooler and the block. Over time it hardens and eventually it will spring a leak. When it goes, the leak is usually catastrophic in nature. I wouldn't drive the car at all until you pin point it.
The oil cooler is between the oil filter and the block. The o-ring shouldn't be more than a few bucks and easy to change. Unscrew the filter and then unscrew either the big hollow bolt or nut that holds the cooler to the block (can't remember if its a nut or bolt). You may need to undo the coolant lines. The cooler comes right off. Then just get the old, smashed up, hard o-ring off and install the new one.
Like G Loc said, it might be the o ring between the oil filter and the block. O ring is less than a dollar at the Honda dealership I believe. take off the oil filter and you should she a hex bolt (or whatever its called) unscrew that and the o-ring should come out
OR
If it happened all of a sudden and it is leaking on the driver side like you said, it might be possible that it could be the front balance shaft o-ring. Theres a service bulletin/recall for that repair...that front balance shaft seal is prone to coming loose and shooting out oil WHEN the engine is running. FIRST find the source. That might be the issue of its coming from that time belt area from the FRONT BALANCE SHAFT (the seal). The bracket that solves that problem by holding that shaft seal in is only a few bucks at Honda. I had to replace my seal and add that bracket on for my 1995 H22 Prelude.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I don't think the oil cooler o-ring is the cause of the leak since I've replaced it about 1000 miles ago. I'm going to check the engine after work and let you guys know what I'll find.
I let the engine idle for a while. After about 5 minutes little drops of oil started to fall and as the engine temperature increased the drops turned into a little stream. As far as I can see the location of the leakage is on the far left of the engine (timing/distribution belt) between the oil pan and the lower belt pulley.
After I turned the engine off the leakage continued for several minutes.
Does someone know an answer to the following:
Assume an normal non running H22A engine with a correct oil level. Would the oil level in this scenario be below or above the oil pan gasket?
The reason I'm asking is that if the oil level is above the gasket it could mean the leakage is caused by a defective oil pan gasket. If it is below than it's probably not the gasket because the leakage would stop after the engine is turned off, unless large amounts of oil have to travel from the top of the engine to the oil pan past the gasket.
Are the any other o-rings or gaskets nearby the lower pulley?
There is an oil seal where the crank slides through the oil pump, sounds like that is your problem, #29 in this photo.
His leak could also be the balance shaft seal #30, or the oil pump gasket/seal #7
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I'm still working on the leakage, the PS and alternator belt have already been removed. I also want to remove and replace the timing and balancer belt because they are soaked with oil. The Helm manual states that piston one should be at TDC, I've turned the crankshaft so that the arrows on the camshaft gears are pointing upward and the alignment marks are parallel to the engine block. I noticed however that in the manual the marking for the first gear is on the right and for the second gear on the left. On my block however, the marking (with arrows pointing upward) are both on the left. Is it correct for the marking to be both on the left or is piston one not at TDC?
According to the manual there is another TDC alignment mark on the flywheel. I can't however figure out the location of the flywheel by looking at the manual. Could someone please post a picture or description of the flywheel location?
The flywheel is attached to the crank on the transmission side.
You see that black plug to the left of the header heat shield? It pulls right off and you can see the timing marks on it. There's a 'V' shaped marker inside there and there's a line on the flywheel that should line up in the center of the 'V'
should be if all your belts are still good and havent skipped... if your replacing the belts make sure you replace your hydrualic tensioner. its bout 80 bucks but if it goes out your screwed so might as well get it done in the process.. if your good enough you can take the old belts off and put the new ones on and the cam gears and crank wont move there for no need to realign anything at all
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Last edited by kimara3002; 12-23-2009 at 03:34 AM.
I removed the plug to check TDC but there are four markings on the flywheel close together. two on the right, one on the left and one which is longer than the other three and which ends in a curl. To which of there four should I align the V? I also can't get the middle timing-belt cover off. I removed the two bolts but the thing just won't come off, am I missing something?
I think you're talking about the lower cover. As far as I can see the middle cover only has two bolts (Helms page 6-107). Is there some sort of mechanism which locks the covers together or should I just pull harder?
I removed the covers, the oil is all over the place but appears to start at the rear camshaft. I'm going to assemble everything tomorrow (without covers) so that I can start the engine and verify that it's really the cam seal.
If that is the case, I recommend replacing all of the seals there. You might as well do a timing belt and balance shaft belt replacement while at it. If and when you do, get the support bracket from Honda Dealership for the front balance shaft seal. There was a recall/TSB years ago about that popping out over time, if you don't have the bracket - I used to be a Honda Technician and I needed to replace lots of those.
Sure do. I have an extra one sittin around the garage. It's:
06923-POA-306
I think it costs a few bucks. The bracket attaches to the bolt nearest to the front balance shaft. That bolt holds the oil dip stick tube. The package also comes with a new o-ring for that dip stick tube. It comes with instructions so when you get it, you're all set to go after reading the directions.
I checked the front balancer shaft seal and guess what... It was completely loose from it's seat, so I guess that's the source of my oil leakage. I also checked TDC again because I had some problems with that (see several posts back). The cam gears, flywheel and crankshaft are all aligned but the alignment on the front balancer shaft with the oil pump is way off, any idea why?
It could have been misaligned from the last timing belt replacement. It could be possible that someone didn't align a couple of things correctly.
Yep, I was afraid it was the front balance shaft seal. I'd recommend doing a full timing belt service which includes all belts, tensioners, water pump, and seals.
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. The oil leakage is at the drivers (left) side of the engine and only appears to leak when the engine is running. Any suggestions to the nature of this problem are welcome.
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