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[Trothy]

Hi there, I had the frequently encountered rocker cover gasket failure on my 2.2.  So I bought a replacement rocker gasket, o-rings and sealant and breather sump gasket.  Cleaned out the breather pipe on the right side of the engine, replaced the rocker gasket with sealant on the half moons and front cam corners. Cam cover torx bolts tightened to 8nm. 

No more oil leaking into the spark plug wells, however since doing this the car has developed an oil drip which I've noticed when parking the car overnight.  Come back in the morning to a small amount of oil on the floor.  Seems to be dripping down and eventually off the sump?

Anyone else encountered this problem?  Is it just a case I've fitted the gasket incorrectly? I've tried refitting the rocker cover gasket and breather sump gasket but still the oil drip remains.

[mathewst]

Check the back of the engine where the half moon rubber gasket parts are.
Mine still leaks there after cam cover gasket change.
Did you use original cam cover gasket?

[Trothy]

Yup it's an original Vx gasket, had a feel round the half moons after taking the car for a run and doesn't seem to be any oil coming from them :/

[Lazydocker]

How long ago did you change the gasket? it's possible that there's some residual oil running off still :-/

[Trothy]

Definitely not just residual oil,  just tried giving the engine bay a bit of a clean so I can maybe see whats happening.  Took the car out for a 20 minute run and when I came back there was quite bit of oil collected on the undertray pretty much centrally, which was then dripping from the middle of this onto the floor.

[GaryBC]

On the two occasions when my rocker box gaskets failed (once for each bank of my V6) the oil run-off found it's way onto the hot exhaust so made quite a nice amount of smoke (it would have made the Red Arrows proud!).

So if you have no smoke could this eliminate the rocker box as a source of your leak?

[GaryBC]

PS. Where are my manners - welcome to the forum!!

Someone here will have encountered the same problem you have and will steer you towards a fix. There's an awful lot of knowledge and experience here!!

[Trothy]

I guess the oil drip could be from somewhere else?  It's just as it wasn't dripping prior to me replacing the rocker cover gasket I assumed it was something I'd done.  The oil is definitely dripping onto the plastic undertray, just to the right of the oil filter.  Can't see exactly where it's dripping/coming from though.

[russ b]

 :yI encountered leak. It was from pressure valve sendet behimd oil filter cost me a tenner from vx exactly same symptons as you. Check behinf filter

[Trothy]

Well I jacked the car up yesterday and got underneath to have a look, sadly there was a film of oil all over the sump and the area behind the oil filter generally, so I think I'm going to have to grab a lot of shop towels and degreaser and get it all cleanbefore I have a chance of pinpointing the leak. 

Quite confident the leak doesn't appear to be dripping down from the top of the engine so that rules out the rocker cover gasket.

I'm still a bit of an amatuer when it comes to working on cars so does anyone know what the oil pressure sender looks like on a 2.2?  Just so I know what I'm looking for!

Cheers,

Al

[Kevin Wood]

EDIT: Ignore the following: Just noticed it's a 2.2.


Oil pressure sender is on the opposite corner of the engine below the alternator. They have been known to leak, mind.

My favourite would be the oil filter not sealing, oil cooler pipes loose, possibly crank sensor "O" ring or as russell says there is a bypass valve in the side of the block close to the oil filter (I thought it was actually inside the base of the oil filter no not possible to cause an external leak but I might be wrong).

Cleaning it up for a good look will probably identify the culprit.

Kevin

[swamp rat]

Had the same problem on my 2.2 a while back. Also turned out to be the oil pressure switch. It's behind the oil filter looking up - looks a bit like a spark plug with a thin wire connected to end. You need to remove the engine tray to see it clearly. If you start the engine and crawl under you might see the oil dripping off the end.

[Trothy]

Jacked it up today and tried to clean some of the junk of so I could see where the oil is coming from,  Oil pressure switch appears to be fine, the actual drip is coming from the bottom of what I think is the crank pulley (bottom most pulley of the timing belt), so safe to say the leak is somewhere above there?  Crankshaft oil seal maybe?

[Trothy]

Update:  So I whipped off the timing belt cover to have a look under there, no oil on the belt (good news) but lots of oily mess at the bottom (see attached pics)







Not great photos as camera phone...

Anyone care to offer a diagnosis?

Is it advisable to run the engine with the timing belt cover off to see if I can spot the leak?

Cheers,  Al