Oily timing belt

[bushbean]

Hey y'all,
I changed the timing belt last year, and while at it, both the crank and cam oil seals were replaced. Immediately after that, there was a tiny oil leak out of the bottom of the timing belt cover. Well, the leak has gotten worse. Now, it leaves a small puddle on my driveway every morning. I opened the top timing belt cover this morning, and saw that the bottom part of the compartment is covered with oil. I hosed it down with Simple Green and a garden hose. I drove a lot today, and just checked the compartment again. I see oil stains coming out of the camshaft oil seal. It seems like this is the culprit. However, this seal was replaced last year or only 5,000 miles ago, and I'm having a hard time believeing the culprit is really the seal. What do y'all think? Is it not also possible that a worn out camshaft can cause a perfectly good oil seal to leak? By the way, the engine has over 200,000 miles, and the valves are a bit noisy.

[forrest89sei]

I'd suspect the cam seal or the Crankseal

[greentee76]

There really isn't anything that holds the camseal in position. It would not be hard to get the seal cocked in there when the valvetrain is torqued down. It is quite possible that it is leaking. Not really that difficult to replace if you have a torque wrench to torque the overhead back down.

[Ichiban]

People don't understand that a neoprene wiper seal will actually wear a groove in hardened, ground and polished steel. Every day, my machine shop gets shafts in to be re-machined and hardened due to wear from oil seals. If you are installing a new seal on an old shaft, it is critical that the sealing lip is offset from the original wear pattern or it WILL leak.

Now, go away.

[bushbean]

Man, I wish I hadn't replaced that seal in the first place. The old seal wasn't even leaking. I thought I would be proactive and put a fresh one in there.

[Ichiban]

If it isn't causing a problem, don't go in with the hand of dickenwith and fuck it all up. That should be a sticky.

[Demon1024]

People don't understand that a neoprene wiper seal will actually wear a groove in hardened, ground and polished steel. Every day, my machine shop gets shafts in to be re-machined and hardened due to wear from oil seals. If you are installing a new seal on an old shaft, it is critical that the sealing lip is offset from the original wear pattern or it WILL leak.

Hell i didn't know that! thats good to know for next time

[Dr_Snooz]

I thought changing those seals was part of the timing belt service at most shops. Should they not do that? I'd think letting the seals get old and hard would make things wear faster.



Guess not.

[Hauntd ca3]

any time i do oil seals at work, i put some cv grease in the groove of the seal.
keeps it from wearing out from no lube during the first bit after start up.
works a treat eh

[2oodoor]

any time i do oil seals at work, i put some cv grease in the groove of the seal.
keeps it from wearing out from no lube during the first bit after start up.
works a treat eh

exactly right

it could also be the oil pump leaking, it is under the timing cover too, there will be a clean trail of where the oil is leaking instead of an oil stain. unless you do not change your oil enough

[bushbean]

The oil leak doesn't really bother me; it leaks real, real slow anyway. I rather not mess with it. But, is it safe to drive with an oily timing belt? In other words, what is the chance that the oil will cause the belt to slip and cause catastrophic damage to valves?

[forrest89sei]

The oil leak doesn't really bother me; it leaks real, real slow anyway. I rather not mess with it. But, is it safe to drive with an oily timing belt? In other words, what is the chance that the oil will cause the belt to slip and cause catastrophic damage to valves?

Driving with a oily timing belt could cause it to slip, if nothing else it could cause the belt to get soft and deteriorate faster.

It's something your going to want to fix


Good Luck,

Forrest

[AccordB20A]

Driving with a oily timing belt could cause it to slip, if nothing else it could cause the belt to get soft and deteriorate faster.

It's something your going to want to fix


Good Luck,

Forrest

yeah thats what i was afraid of. i dont think oil and cambelts go together very well. not that it matters on a A series engine

[BITESIZE]

I have an oily belt too, and I plan on changing it and fixing the problem. You should too.

[AccordEpicenter]

did you use a genuine honda seal when you changed the timing belt? Ive had bad luck with aftermarket seals and will not use them for critical areas like rear main, cam seals, front main etc

[bushbean]

I used Autozone special. Now it leaks.

[bushbean]

Update
----------
I remove the cam seal, and it looks like the spring on the seal has popped out. It was poorly installed. I put in a new genuine Honda oil seal. Lets hope I don't screw up again.