Oil Leak Data Point

Wife came home last night from work, and she said. "I started smelling something burning just as I came up the hill," (We live on top of a steep hill). I popped the hood and sure enough there was oil smoke, and a glance under the car showed a dripping and a small puddle forming on the garage floor.

A look around showed that the leak was somewhere from the rear of the motor, up high (the top of the bell housing was wet, but the flywheel was dry).

I pulled the spark plug plastic valley cover and the various valleys up there were filled with oil. I had noticed just a bit of oil in there before, but I wrote that off to my wife's (or my) occasional messy oil-fill attempts. This time was different. It was enough oil to fil the head, and when she climbed the hill, the momentum of the car and the angle of the motor caused the buiild up to flow out the back side of the cover and down the back of the motor onto the exhaust and frame (what a mess!).

After allowing the thing to cool off I blotted up the excess. I checked the dipstick and found that it was still a bit over the add mark, so no panic there (and she did say that it didn't overheat or anything). I have just done a timing belt (and water pump) as well as plugs, so you can imagine what went through my head!

With the top of the head cleaned off and all the coil-wire covers degreased, I restarted and saw that the oil was building from one spot- right where one of the head bolts had come loose (one of the four that surround each plug). Out came the torque wrench, and no more leak....

Next time you do plugs, check the head bolts... Well, DUH! ;-)

__ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvo '93 960 Estate

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Randy G.
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