My 96' Grand Am has developed some strange problems in the past few days. A little background info on the car: It has the 2.4L, 4 Cyl, DOHC motor in it. The car has 126K miles, and has been well maintained over the past few years that I have owned it. All filters, plugs, most fluids, ect have been replaced in the past few months.
Anyways, here is problem #1. When cold, the car starts fine, but after it has warmed up, then sat for a little while, it will not start very easily. When cranking it over with no firing, I tapped the throttle a little, and it started to fire, then gradually started to run. Sounds almost like vapor lock.
Problem #2, when looking over the motor after problem #1 started, I noticed a good amount of oil all over the lower half of the timing chain cover. After further inspection, the whole fan belt, crank pulley, ect is covered. It appears to be leaking from around the crankshaft pulley. About a quart had leaked out, so no damage due to low oil levels was done.
My main question is could these two problem be related? I only speculate this since they both started at the same time. If so, what are a few good things to check out? If not, I'm open to any advise.
Thank you in advance to for any help! Jeremy