Oil leak.

[BenL]

Just wondered if anyone could give me a possible diagnosis?

I have noticed an ever increasing patch of oil developing where i park my car (Esprit s3). I check the engine oil regularly and always seems to be ok which makes me think that it could be leaking from the transmission? Excuse my ignorance but is this a sealed unit and is there any way that i can check the level/top it up?

Thanks,

Ben.

[Splashout]

Hi Ben it is possible for the transmission to leak through the plate on the back. this is fairly simple to remove and seal if this is the case if the pool of oil is located at the back of the car almost under the silencer then this could be the case.

As for the level there is a level plug on the side, i dont have the manual to hand or a good enough memory to describe exactally which one it is. The oil should just flow from this hole when the level is correct. To fill the transmission there is a rubber bumg under the carpet in the floor of the boot if you remove this you will see the filler plug.

Hope that helps

Glyn

[WayneB]

The oil level/fill plug is on the L/H side of the transaxle roughly half way between the end cover and the disc brake calipers. If you have a later C35 Citroen trans it is the LOWER of the 2 side plugs. Dont undo the upper one! This tranny came in early 1984 (my Esprit has older one) Fill untill oil oozes back out of fill hole. Just make sure oil leak is transmission.Most Esprits have some sort of oil leak somewhere.

[watership down]

My car has a leak from either the top cam cover, or the lower cam block. It drips on the waste gate from the stainless steel plate, which is attached to the cam cover. When I stop at a light I get a plume of blue smoke every so often out of the louvres.

Leaky 87 turbo Esprit HCI

Brampton,Ontario.

[WayneB]

Id get that fixed ASAP Ivan, before you incinerate your car

[USAndretti42]

Mike Costin used to do a demonstration on a running engine with a hot exhaust. He would throw a cup of petrol on the exhaust and hardly anything would happen because most of it evaporated. Then he would put a drop of oil on it and the oil would burn for some time. Wayne' right. That leak needs fixing or diverting.

[BenL]

Thanks for everyones help.

Cheers,

Ben.

[mr50bmg]

My car has a leak from either the top cam cover, or the lower cam block. It drips on the waste gate from the stainless steel plate, which is attached to the cam cover. When I stop at a light I get a plume of blue smoke every so often out of the louvres.

Leaky 87 turbo Esprit HCI

Brampton,Ontario.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For years I've had a leak either from the top cam cover or the cam tower block and oil accumulates in the spark plug wells. There's smoke from that area as the car is warming up, but then I assume it all burns off. I've never seen it dripping on my exhaust or wastegate. I'm almost convinced oil in the plug wells is what makes the car run crappy for the first 10 minutes (stumbling and hesitation), though the carbs need to be rebuilt, too.

I'm thinking strongly that my leak is from the cam tower. How is the space between the engine block and the cam towers sealed? Surely not a gasket? I don't think anything is warped, as I'm not seeing oil in my coolant or coolant in my oil.

-Dave

[Splashout]

Dave it is an anerobic gasket sealent that is used i believe loctite 504 is the recomended one but anything that cross references will be fine