Oil Leak/spraying On Back Of Engine And Firewall

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

The car is a 1989 205 CTI 1.6.

 

I got the proverbial oil leak, it happens at the back of the engine, sprays the oil all over the firewall. I have attempted to find a spray by revving the engine manually but wasn't able to pinpoint the location. When I drive the car, especially if I rev it to high rpms, the firewall gets a nice coating of it. I have replaced the distributor o-ring, so it isn't (or shouldn't be) leaking there. What could it be, at the back of the engine? Valve cover gasket? Head gasket?

[Henry 1.9GTi 36]

any small oil leak can cause havoc in the engine bay. With all the air turbulence it's very difficult to say where oil is coming from on what are usually grimy dirty old engines!

 

I had a small weep from my oil filter sandwich plate which ended up all over the firewall despite being in front of the engine. The air will drag it around all over the place. Check the usual obvious stuff by cleaning thouroughly with brake cleaner and then inspecting after 1-10 mile drive intervals.

 

Sump

Oil filter

Oil filter snadwich plate

Cam shaft oil seals

Driveshaft oil seals (smell the oil if its gbox will be very obvious smell)

Crankshaft ends

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

Should have read whole post.

Edited February 26, 2014 by iPlod999

[dcc 855]

How old is the engine? Likely to be a bit of cylinder pressure building up in the sump from piston ring blow by, thus meaning it is pushing past a seal somewhere. Personally I would check the breather pipes, and if they are ok then have a look at various engine seals.

[DamirGTI 342]

Wash/degrease entire engine and engine bay first .. then once clean and dry , start it up and look around for leaks .

 

Common leak places are sump , sump spacer , crankshaft oil seal (on the gearbox side) , "hockey stick seals" on the end main crank bearing cap (also gearbox side) and even the block core plug (ditto , gearbox side , located just above the crankshaft seal)

 

I had all kind of leaks - sump , sump spacer , crankshaft seal , hockey seals and block core plug ... just one of those coated entire side of the firewall with oil , especially during fast long driving on the motorway - it was the block core plug on the gearbox side of the engine , it's not a water gallery core plug it's an oil return gallery/channel core plug .

 

D

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

Hmmmm... got some hunting to do. Thanks for the tips!

[hoodygoodwood 71 3 Cars]

Do you have power assisted steering , I had a 309 GTI with PAS and a pin hole in a hose was spraying fluid over the exhaust manifold

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

No power steering. Coupled with 195/50-15 tires and a tiny Raid steering wheel it makes for quite an effort when parking!

[DamirGTI 342]

If the oil splashing zone is more to excessive on the gearbox side of the firewall , i bet it'll be crankshaft oil seal , big end bearing cap seals or sump/sump spacer on that corner .. or even the mentioned core plug , oil leaks from these end up on the firewall because of the flywheel which as it spins shifts the oil leak around ... Oil residue form the leaky sump oil filter breather hoses usually manifest more around the body floor rather that up over the firewall while carried with the wind during the driving ..

 

Here's a pic of leaky core plug (you can see the oil leak line under the core plug) :

 

 

.. this one made an real mess - lots of oil at the back of the engine and on the firewall during the motorway driving .

 

D

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

Your picture isn't showing.

[PhilNW 44]

In my case - it was the cam cover gasket where it arches over the distributor casing, very very very small dribble when ticking over (oil not pressurised in that location) but turned into something you have described when driving due to the turbulence. Bit of flexible gasket sealant cured it

Edited February 27, 2014 by PhilNW

[kyepan 291]

i also vote crankshaft oil seal, it will spray everywhere on the bulkhead. as happened to me.

[S@m 156]

In my case it was the core plug that Damir has pictured, would absolutely piss oil and coat the bulkhead, the RH driveshaft was throwing it up the rear of the cylinder head aswell. This was on an mi16 but its (basically) the same bottom end.

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

Today I cleaned the bulkhead with some alcohol-based window cleaner, then sprayed it with hot water at the car wash. The bulkhead was clean. Washing the engine wasn't as successful as I didn't have a brush, as there was a layer of crud from dirt being deposited on the leaking oil.

 

After cleaning it I took it for a drive, got to the Autobahn and took the car to 180 km/h, screaming at 6000 rpm, and I could smell the oil. I stopped at a gas station and my whole bulkhead was oily . I checked the oil level and I lost at least a half liter.

 

I topped off the oil, returned to the car wash and sprayed the bulkhead again. I then drove the car for a mile at regular city speeds, stopped and checked again. There were a few drops of oil on the bulkhead, parallel with the engine/transmission mating surface, but all at a high position. I revved the engine while stopped, attempting to see oil being sprayed and saw nothing...

 

I'll have to bring a brush next time and really clean the engine well, try this again to see where the oil is coming from.

[DamirGTI 342]

got to the Autobahn and took the car to 180 km/h, screaming at 6000 rpm, and I could smell the oil.

 

That's the same way i noticed leak when said core plug started leaking - driving on the motorway at high speed , first noticed smell (burnt oil) , then stopped at the pump station to have a look and entire gearbox side of the firewall was covered in oil as well as the back of the engine ... oil level drooped quite a bit as well so i had to top it up frequently until i got back home .

 

It's either a crank seal or core plug , if it comes from the engine to transmission mating area and if you're loosing that much oil .. theres an few cm. long opened gap at the back side of the engine to gearbox bell-housing mating area , around the top of differential cover - this is where the oil gets thrown out when shifted by the flywheel rotation .

 

Time to take the gearbox down along with the flywheel .. once removed should be clearly visible if it's the seal or the core plug , or even the crank bearing seals .

 

D

[murtaghp 3]

I had something similar many years ago where i would have oils spraying to the extent that it was hitting the manifold and causing lots of smoke.

 

I found that the dipstick was being pushed out by the back pressure in the breathers.

 

I was running carbs at the time so it might not be relevant.

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

 

Time to take the gearbox down along with the flywheel .. once removed should be clearly visible if it's the seal or the core plug , or even the crank bearing seals .

 

D

 

And I was looking forward to doing the rear beam first

 

I guess that would be a great opportunity to install a new clutch. How is LUK clutches for the car, for spirited street driving? Are there any special tools required to do this job?

[DamirGTI 342]

LUK , Valeo (OE PSA supplier for clutch kits) , Sachs .. all good brands so that's fine if opted using LUK item ..

 

Tools wise , nothing special just usual set of sockets/spanners .. aside from the usual , you'll "need" an clutch alignment tool (sometimes they're included within the clutch kit .. but i've yet rarely seen them inside aftermarket bought kits) but can do without it just by using long socket extension and some electric tape , make an ring by wrapping the tape near the end of the socket extension , ring of the same dia. as the clutch center hole for the input shaft and use that to align the clutch in center .

 

D

 

Clutch change guide :

http://www.205gtidrivers.com/articles.html/_/articles-guides/gearbox-drivetrain/clutch-change-guide-r61

Edited March 3, 2014 by DamirGTI

[farmer 328 1 Cars]

I have a genuine BE1 clutch kit if you wanted a price on that won't be wanting a lot.

 

 

It's Valeo in make of course.

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

Well, today I degreased and cleaned the engine quite well, and did something very simple to see if the oil leak would stop: I pulled my dipstick off and plugged the whole with some aluminium foil and a zip tie.

 

After that I took it for a drive, stopping every five to ten minutes, taking it to high rpms, trying to find a leak. After plugging the dipstick I found not a single drop of oil outside my engine!

 

So it seems oil is gushing out the dipstick, and that is coating my entire engine. So it seems to me that my crankcase has too much pressure. A leak test has revealed good compression, so could blow by be an issue? Perhaps crankcase ventilation is poor? I really does seem like the dipstick is the culprit here.

[Hheppy 9 1 Cars]

That's really useful, I have a leak and having a quick look yesterday the oil was on the block underneath and behind the distributor, it looked quite oily on the back there, so I have bought de greaser etc to clean up.

 

The engine has been rebuilt by LAD Motorsport and I understand there may be more pressure in the crankcase as a result, so I will check that, hopefully it can be an easy fix!!

[pyrrhic 14 2 Cars]

Well, the Pug dealer couldn't find the 205 GTI/CTI dipstick on the Service Box, so he ordered a 206 dipstick. The dipstick came in, the length was the same, but the oil level marks were different, about 1/2" lower than on the 205 stick. The mechanic on the dealership then made new marks on my dipstick, so that it matches the level on the 205 stick.

 

I took the car out for a hard driving session, taking rpms up to near redline, and there is no leak anymore. The oil mess is gone! So now I can do a really good degreasing of the engine and make it shine