i have a 98 tour and had a gradual oil leak that turned into a pretty major leak.
it's coming from the above arrow.
it comes down and creates this mess of oil everywhere and on the driveway
what pulley is arrow pointing to? oil is coming from behind the above pulley.
so would i have to replace the pump, pulley????
BTW, didn't know autozone had that great info!!!
Pulley? No. I think you are probably looking at a defective hose, clamp or pump. Good luck.
Can you determine the color of the fluid- i.e red or brown? Red would indicate power steering pump, brown would be oil. If it is brown, then I'd suggest replacing the valve cover gaskets.
Rick
the fluid is brown. and i know it's oil.
here's my question:
how would "bad" valve cover gaskets be the culprit in oil leaking from the power steering pulley??
Unless the PS fluid is so old it's brown.
The oil isn't leaking from the power steering pulley itself, it's collecting in the valley between the heads and then leaking from behind the power steering pump assembly which will look like it's coming from the pulley.
Rick
would it be wise to check first if there is oil on the spark plugs/wires first?
would this determine that there is a valve cover gasket leak??
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/c6/79/0900823d801bc679.jsp I think it is the timming cover gasket that's leaking. I have the same thing happening now. Just not as bad yet.
you sure??
could it be the timing cover gasket from behind that pulley??
or are we still thinking its the valve cover gaskets??
ill check the plugs and wires oil residue test this evening and let ya'll know after class..
Looks like motor oil to me. If the P/S was leaking that bad it would have ran out of fluid long ago.
Perhaps the side of the head lower down has a crack? The pulley with the red arrow is the water pump.
Originally posted by SquareHead:
The pulley with the red arrow is the water pump.
No, that's the power steering pulley
Open the link and click on figure 4. See the circled areas? Those area could be leaking. Do you see a wet area at the bottom of the vee on the cover?
Valve cover gasket leaks are fairly easy to spot, get some good light in the area and take a look.
i checked the front 3 plugs before i got to school and they didn't seem to have any oil on them..
if that helps any
The valve covers have a separate perimeter seal versus the spark plug holes so they wouldn't necessarily be leaking. It's kind of an ugly area to see into, but you might try dabbing a rag down next to the engine mount on each side and see if one comes up with oil on it to try to isolate the leak a bit further.
As far as the timing cover leaking, it's possibly, but considering where gravity would be naturally taking the leak in that area, I'd say it's less likely.
Rick
what would that determine again???
you said to check if there is oil coming from each side of the engine mount.
How about the pcv oil seperator thats between the heads, I had the same thing and that was my leak. you cant get that out all the way though with out removing one of the heads, I am not really sure about that but Terry Haines told me that so I just removed the uim and lim and it is held in place by two bolts. if you unbolt it you can rotate it upside down and remove the gasket, clean it and install a new gasket then just reverse to install.
Originally posted by beedalahi:
i have a 98 tour and had a gradual oil leak that turned into a pretty major leak.
is it just me or does it look like the harmonic balancer has seperated and moved back, look at its alignment with the ac pully. is that rubbing on the timing cover, that could be a problem if thats the case
thanks all you guys for the input..
i've been searching harmonic balancers since i did recall my g'fs dad saying to replace a harmonic balancer seal when he replaced my head gaskets..ill ask him bout it later..
so with that info:
-yes, the serpentine belt was not alligned correctly on the tensioner before i took it off. was very noticeably out of wack. about only 40% on tensioner
-there was/is a high pitch squeal coming from serpentine belt area at idle and low rpms, goes away after about 30MPH or higher RPMs
-also, when i took the front passenger side tire off and tire well covers and took the pictures it sounded like the squeal was coming from a/c pulley side. could also be echo bouncing around everywhere there. but more noticeably the a/c pulley.
-there is oil everywhere. on firewall under hood, some on coolant reservoir, on engine mounts, bascially everywhere.
once i cleaned everything to pinpoint oil leak i initially thought leak was from lower main pulley(camshaft one) but when i looked higher was actually coming out to where i first pointed in image - p/s area and then coming down covering cam pulley and everything.
that was when i assumed oil leakin from p/s area gettin on serp belt, belt whips oil everywhere, and also causese squealing.
You mean the crankshaft pulley, not cam.
Are you sure the crankshaft seal isn't leaking? It would tend to throw the oil around indicitive of the amount of oil thats present.
I would replace the crankshaft pulley, it's definintly moved out of position. Pictures don't show it but check to see if the crank pulley is rubbing through the timming cover.
ok guys, ive been hesitant to start on my car (more like wait for payday on friday).
so would you guys recommend that i replace the valve cover gaskets
or
replace the crankshaft seal ??
you guys are too cool.
thanks for all the help
First thing I would take off and replace is the crank pulley. Once thats removed take a closer look at the seal.
Where is the crankshaft bolt, don't see it in the second picture? It does look like there is RTV in the keyway area though.
but....
what bout the leak i was saying bout coming out behind the power steering pulley???
Did you look over the picture Tony linked you of the steering pump from Autozone, on the first page of this thread????
You say the leak is coming from behind the pump? You say the pump isn't leaking steering fluid, so to me it means the cover seal is leaking or as someone mentioned earlier the leak could be from the PCV breather between the heads and oil is running down the vee of the timing cover by the power steering pulley.
Questions for you????
When where the head gaskets changed, mileage since?
Did the person put RTV in the critical areas the manual calls for?
Are you using the car now?
Do you realize your crank pulley is no good?
some more info on oil leak:
well, the head gaskets were changed about 2 years ago.
mileage since is probably around 8000 miles.
and RTV was put in critical areas.
no, i am not using the car now. it's sittin at home.
i replaced the crank pulley and you all were right,
it was grinding against the timing cover!!!
i started it and all vibration stopped!!
i didn't have time to put new oil in to see where leak was coming from cause it had gotten dark.
i will post a pic of old the damper pulley and grinding it caused.
so what does that mean if the damper pulley is grinding up against the timing cover??
it grinded about .5 cm in making a groove and the inner seal of the old pulley is not alligned with the pulley.
hey guys
i replaced the Harmonic Balancer last weekend and have been driving it since and the leak stopped!!!
weird.
also drives tons more smoother!!
thanks for all your inputs.
ceg did it again!
Yikes on that pic. Good to hear it's resolved.
I have a slow leak that sounds similar to yours. I wanted to wait till this summer to pin it down. All you did was replace the crank pulley?
Originally posted by ZeroHour:
I have a slow leak that sounds similar to yours. I wanted to wait till this summer to pin it down. All you did was replace the crank pulley?
yeah, i was gonna replace the seal but thought to just change the pulley.
i went to autozone to borrow a puller.
then i took off the pulley cleaned the timing cover and put new pulley, bolt, and washer on.
they also sell performance DMD pulleys off of CTA Motorsports website.
