Oil leak getting all over my number plate

[cazna52]

You know your oil leak is getting bad when it covers the whole rear end of your car. A couple of weeks ago Steve M let me use his ramps and noticed that I had a slight oil leak, just a few drips. Since then though it has gotten far worse. Oil has just been pouring out and droplets were being sucked up onto the rear of my car.

Steve identified the problem as probably being the rear crank shaft seal so I will have to look at replacing it.

[rogerch]

This isn't sounding good Justin, if as Scott says it's an engine out, I recommend a compression check, and be prepared to a bit more than just replace the seal. Oh and you need to read up on hoists because you need a long reach, and quite high to get it out of the esprit.

[wookiecj]

Oh dear thats a major engine out and strip down.

Buddsy

It doesn't have to be....... if that's all you are doing. Just slide the gearbox back/out of the way and you can get to the seal as illustrated by the following pictures.

Gearbox out of the way...

Flywheel off

Cover off, which holds the seal. (Sump also being dropped in this picture)

Cleaned up cover waiting for the new seal to be fitted. Note position of old seal before removing it so that the new seal can be seated at the correct depth (there are no shoulders for it to snuggle up to).

Poking around in the sump with a magnet before the last of the oil is discarded......

.....looking for any evidence of metal swarf/debris (milky oil due to overheating and head gasket problem on this particular vehicle)

Bottom of engine exposed when the sump comes off.

Being a little braver, you can then have a look at your big end bearings for signs of wear (Well, you've got this far...)

Reverse is the fitting of removal, as they say. All jobs done outside, on the drive....

But if you want to take the engine out, don't let me stop you.... and while you are at it you might as well change your cambelt, renew your tensioner bearing, check your water pump and all the other stuff which is difficult to get to in situ.

If you are putting it into a garage, they'll probably tell you that the engine has to come out, "Standard procedure on these, mate!" but as you can see it really isn't necessary.

Let us know how you're getting on and post some pictures.

EDIT:- We found that the trick with getting the gearbox out of the way is to lift the back of the car high enough so that it can come out of the bottom rather than being a weightlifting hero trying to get it over the top of the boot. You may have to lift the front of the car too as it will probably ground before you have enough clearance at the back so 4 stands or 2 stands and a pair of ramps (if your front valance will clear the stands on the way up) are essential.

Edited February 8, 2011 by wookie

[cazna52]

Doing it without taking the engine out is definately preferable. If I take the engine out I can see it being quite a while before I would get it back in. Doing it the way wookie describes it wouldn't be impossible to have it done in a day or two.

Thanks for the photos wookie, I had been searching the forums but hadn't found any good photos of this job.

I take it the seal is a ring that goes around the inside hole of the cover?

Edited February 8, 2011 by cazna52

[lotus4s]

It is yes.

And be sure to get it done soon or with that much oil, your clutch will be shot if it isn't already. Unless it's pretty new, you probably should replace it while you're there along with the output shaft seals on the gearbox as well.

[stevem]

Hi Justin

Does the source of the oil leak look to be coming from the bottom of the bell-housing area where we saw drips last week ? I guess you can see the point of origin where it starts to blow towards the rear of the car. It's still worth checking that you havn't developed another leak from somewhere else, bring it up this weekend and we can have a good look underneath. Another source of leaks can be the cam-cover gaskets, just have a quick check around there - I have a spare set if you need them. Also might be worth looking near the oil filter, your sandwich plate is in a funny position/orientation so maybe it wasn't put back right during the P/O's ownership.

Don't worry, you will get it all sorted.

Edited February 8, 2011 by stevem

[cazna52]

I'm not sure where the oil is coming from at the moment. Pretty much every part of the underside of the engine is covered with oil. I haven't gotten around to cleaning it off to watch where the oil is coming from because it is hard to get under the car. It is definitely low on the engine though, not cam covers, but it could possibly be the sump gasket.

I actually suspected it could have been the dipstick tube. I bent the tube quite badly when I was putting my petrol tank back in and thought it could have a break in it but I have checked and that isn't where it is coming from.

Steve, it would be great to bring it to your place this weekend and have a good look, thanks for that. I will send you a message closer to the weekend to organize a time.

[wookiecj]

Justin,

Lots of photos of a variety of things (loads of near duplicates too) from this job available at

http://s421.photobucket.com/albums/pp296/sweetesprit/andjohns%20S4%20Jul%2009/#!cpZZ6QQtppZZ16

I think that you should have access to them, if they are of any use to you....

All jobs done with the engine in situ.

What you are initially describing should be capable of being done in a weekend, if you have the replacement parts available.

Wookie.

[cazna52]

My car is fixed

I went to SteveM's house today and as soon as we took the engine cover off he guessed that it was actually a second leak from one of the tappit cover seals that was the main problem. After degreasing the engine he confirmed it. With a clean engine once we started her up we could see the oil coming out at the front of one of the tappit covers and getting on the belts which had been spraying the oil everywhere else.

When we took the tappit cover off we could see that the gasket had been put on with a bit of a kink in it that was where the oil was getting out.

Very luckily Steve had a spare gasket in his garage so he was able to fix it very quckly. We also did an oil and filter change and Steve gassed my air con so it was a very productive day.

Thanks everyone for your help with this. I still have a small leak from the rear crank seal so all your advice about that will not go to waste, I will still be doing that job later. Thanks for all those photos Wookie, they have given me a much better idea of what has to be done and will make the job a lot easier.

[wookiecj]

Very glad to hear that you are all sorted and that your remaining leak is not as horrendous as was first suspected. In extremis, you can make gaskets out of the sort of cardboard used in cereal packets as temporary solution until the correct item can be sourced. I don't advocate this as a regular occurrence but have done it in the past to get out of a fix. It is particularly useful when the gasket in question is easily accessible as you don't really want to have to do a second major stripdown to replace a temporary gasket.

I've been toying with the idea of sorting the hundreds of photos that Sparky and I have taken over the past couple of years into some sort of 'systems/components' categories. It is getting more difficult to remember which car had a particular problem and which had the best photos taken. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet soon (Sparky doesn't have the time to do it) before it all becomes truly unmanageable. If I manage to do it I'll post a list of where they are. There are a bunch of photos-streams describing various jobs on the various sites but, as you say, it is difficult to find them when you need them.

[Choppa]

Chris, that sort of photo illustrated "how to/watch out for" guide would be a superb resource for all the people that use this forum, sounds a big job though!

[cazna52]

That would be great. As you said there are a lot of good walkthroughs on a lot of sites but it can be hard to find the right walkthrough when you need it. Also on this forum if you find an old thread with photos often the photos have expired so you can't see them. If there was one central place where everyone contributed photos and walk throughs it would be incredibly useful.

[Bibs]

http://www.thelotusforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=Esprit

[cazna52]

That is a good place for it, but the only maintence article there has all of its images broken already. It could be very good if it grows and if everyone contributes. I will make sure I take lots of photos of any major job I do in the future.

[davevr6car]

Wookie,

I think I might have a rear crank oil seal leak on my S4s and was hoping to replace it by leaving the engine in situ. Why is it necessary to remove the sump?

Cheers

Dave

[Bibs]

There's a link on the left to upload images, if they're hosted on site they won't get lost! You're very welcome to get involved, I'd like to see if grow.

[wookiecj]

Wookie,

I think I might have a rear crank oil seal leak on my S4s and was hoping to replace it by leaving the engine in situ. Why is it necessary to remove the sump?

Cheers

Dave

Dave,

Sorry for any confusion generated. It isn't necessary to remove the sump.

We were doing it on this vehicle as a precautionary check. Three reasons really:- We were keen to be absolutely sure that there was no metal debris floating around (there wasn't) as we didn't want to overlook anything which may have had the car 'bounce back' on us. & The oil was so crappy when it drained (cold) removing the sump allowed us to ensure that everything was cleaned out thoroughly. & We wanted to check the bottom end bearings. Not sure if that is the correct order of justification but the bearing check meant that it would have been foolish not to do the other two things. We like to be thorough and as the gearbox was going away to be rebuilt there was some extra downtime which we took full advantage of.

Hope this clears things up.

Wookie

[Nigel]

Justin,

I had exactly the same coating of oil on my rear bumper a couple of years ago. The oil was coming from the turbo return pipe, the one that goes to the sump and it was at the turbo end of the pipe.

Nigel