Oil Leak from Rocker or Camshaft

[kingy1912]

Hi there,

I need a bit of help understanding an issue i have with oil leaking from the top end of my engine. Its a 1.6HDI Blue 100 DV6 engine. It was about two weeks ago and they fitted a rocker cover gasket to solve an oil leak from the top of the engine. Once fitted it seemed fine for a couple of days but it is a taxi so a couple of days equates to a few hundred miles. After this it started dripping oil which was worse than the original leak. So obviously my initial thought here is the gasket has failed or not been fitted right.

It has now went back and they have stripped the rocker cover off and inspected it. They cannot see any issue with the gasket or the rocker cover itself and from having a good look at it the oil does seem to be coming from this area still. They have ordered a new gasket and will fit this in case it is an issue they cannot see with the eye. He did say to me that the alternative is the camshaft box may be leaking. I cannot find any reference to this anywhere and need to figure out what he is really talking about. Is he talking about the camshaft seals needing swapped out because the only other seals that can leak from what i can see are the head gasket and shaft seals. He said the leak is above the head gasket area and appears to be coming from the top of the camshaft area which to me sounds like the rocker cover gasket. Not sure if anyone has had any experience of this and can help out but the car does have 292K on it now so it may be an issue that has not yet been experience by anyone.

If it does turn out to be camshaft seals does anyone have an idea of how big a job and how many hours labour is required for it?

Cheers

[saskak]

Hi there,

I do not have an answer/solution, but have you checked to see how is the crankcase pressure. Say, you opened the oil filler cap (engine running), is it blowing quite hard from there. With 292k miles, there will inevitably be some blow-by that may force some oil through the cover seal.

It's only a guess, but it may be something else.

Cheers

[kingy1912]

Hi there,

I do not have an answer/solution, but have you checked to see how is the crankcase pressure. Say, you opened the oil filler cap (engine running), is it blowing quite hard from there. With 292k miles, there will inevitably be some blow-by that may force some oil through the cover seal.

It's only a guess, but it may be something else.

Cheers

Hi there, 

The engine does have a bit of pressure blowing from there but is something that it has always done from brand new (less than 10 miles when bought). As far as i know these engines do have a high crankcase pressure so the pressure is higher anyway. It is a honda garage but the service manager and two of the workshop guys were citroen previously and have experience with this engine. The say the dont really see a problem with the crankcase pressure side of things. The turbo went last year about this time and the crankcase pressure was checked then because it was burning oil. At that point we were not sure if the oil burning was engine wear, turbo seals or if it was escaping via the PCV. When the turbo was replaced the bearings were away and oil usage dropped from 300ml per 1000 miles to 200ml per 1000 miles.  It is also worth mentioning that the car would burn 1.5 litres normally between services since new. 

However there was an oil leak on it back then and some of the additional oil was leaking from back of engine and bell housing and it was decided to leave until a later date. The clutch ran until 290K so when that was replaced i done the crankshaft seal on the gearbox side and that solved the problem of leaking oil there and for first few days after it was no problem then we started to get a drip from the back of the engine. Its also worth mentioning that oil usage seemed to drop back to not far of the levels when new then few days later it started the leaking and going through the oil again.

For me if it was crankcase pressure causing the leak it would not be a huge leak without obvious signs of gasket damage or damage to the gasket facings on the rocker or camshaft housing. However the leak was fairly bad certainly by my standards and would drip about once every min at tick over and twice to three times per minute when revved up.

I've no idea what is up at the back of the engine in regards to places for oil to leak but the garage (who i have used since day one) have told me that they can see the oil leaking from around the corner of the rocker/camshaft housing on the gearbox side. They have said the leak looks to be higher than the camshaft housing which makes them think it is the rocker cover gasket. However the car has only done 1200 miles from when it was replaced and add that to the fact they dont see any damage to the rocker cover or the gasket they replaced the original one with they are running short on ideas.

So atm their plan is to replace the gasket again and hope that it is something they cant see on the gasket that is causing the issue. Other than that he said the only other remedy they can do is to strip it and check the camshaft seals but they are not really keen since the oil leak appear to be in a different place from the seal.

It will be fixed hopefully this afternoon and they will take it for a good drive and check the oil leak again but failing that then i think our only choice is to suspect the camshaft seal and go for replacing that.

[Cooksey]

Hi, how did you get on ?
Same problem here, it could be my van !
It’s going in tomorrow for camshaft seal, needs to come off,quite £750

[kingy1912]

Hi, how did you get on ?
Same problem here, it could be my van !
It’s going in tomorrow for camshaft seal, needs to come off,quite £750

Hi there Cooksey,

Sorry about the delay i completely forgot all about this post. The issue it seems was the rocker cover itself and probably because it is plastic. They reckon once the torque was removed from bolts holding it that it has distorted some way causing oil to leak past it. The new rocker cover and gasket ordered has so far solved the problem and that is me 3 weeks on now with no other issue with it. Hope yours is the same issue as its a pretty easy fix.

Regards

[kingy1912]

Another update regarding this. It appears that the cam box seal is also away and now must be replaced. It was in for a timing belt so got it done at the same time and saved a bit on the labour.

[bobsyg]

Another update regarding this. It appears that the cam box seal is also away and now must be replaced. It was in for a timing belt so got it done at the same time and saved a bit on the labour.

[bobsyg]

Hi did you ever get oil leak sorted?????

[kingy1912]

Hi did you ever get oil leak sorted?????

Hi bobsyg,

Sorry for delay, i totally missed your comment here. The new rocker cover and seal seems to have sorted it. So far we have had no more major leaks although it does still seem to weep a little.

Thanks