Ldo

Car just reached 40k miles, and I already notice oil seeping out at the head gasket toward the front of the car. It's not a big leak, but it seeps out enough for me to have to wipe it clean at every oil change. Will Honda fix this under warranty? Is it even worth it to take it in? Can I just retorque those two closest bolts?

Car has seen only two track days, other than that, not abused.

#172CR

I would think it is under the powertrain warranty. Call your local dealer and ask but it should be. Haven't heard of that with anyone else's yet. I"m at 44k I think.

davidc1

I'm not so sure it'd be under a powertrain warranty, but get in there quick for them to look at it. They may goodwill it.

However, if you try to fix it yourself, buy a new headgasket and retorqe all the bolts.

It could also be just oil that has spilled from the filler hole when you change oil. If a lilttle spills down the back or side of the hole, if will seep, through capillary action, around the edge of the gasket area and look exactly like a gasket leak.

dedonderosa

is this where its coming from? if so it is not the headgasket i have seen tons of s2k's with this. this actually the timing case and when the factory installed the sealer they did not use enough and make it a perfect seal so it will cause a slight seepage. this will not hurt or affect anything.




this is from Billman250's post

Your leak is a result of the SEALER (not the head gasket) not having sealed the chain case area. note the grey bead of sealer in ther pic.
So, even if you did a new head gasket, if someone is not spot on with the bead of sealer, it wont help. It may even get worse.
You have a 1/4 of a teaspoon of oil there. heat pulls the oil flat, and makes the leak look bigger than it is.

40% of s2ks look like this, so take this best advice you will ever get: leave it alone It is in no way harming anything, it has no affect on pressure, you are not mixing coolant with oil.

dedonderosa

here is the whole thread

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/782606-is-this-normal/

davidc1

Sorry, didn't notice you said head gasket. I thought you were talking about the valve cover gasket. It was real early in the morning when I was reading it.

rossco

i had this same leak on my 08, i have seen a lot of older s2000's with honda ultra flange 2 silicone oozing out from the factory right in that area. looked at mine, and doesn't have any, looks like they forgot to put some there before putting the engine together. i used to just always shoot it down with brake clean. but decided to run a nice bead of silicone right where the head and block meet, then smooth it with my finger. all along the front of the timing cover. so far it has stopped leaking and i no longer have to regularly clean it with brake clean. the job is not the cleanest but does the job. if i removed the airbox it would of came out nicer. i used honda ultra flange 2 silicone to seal it. it's also grey. more durable than hondabond. also checked the 2 allen head bolts were good and tight, could not be made any tighter without the possibility of pulling out threads. they where torqued to spec.

Ldo

Thanks for digging that up man. That's exactly my situation, though not as severe looking.

I know it's not a major issue, it's just that I can't stand to see any leakage in my engine bay. I'll probably just leave this one alone. Don't want to risk an even bigger leak with the head pulled off.

dedonderosa

hey man no problem. just do what he said above and clean the area and run a fine bead of grey sealer across and you'll be good to go

CenturionS2K

I wonder if there are any TSBs or it's been acknowledged by Honda. Some of you may still be under warranty. If you are, what do you do? Try to make it perfect (which is not guaranteed and may worsen it, per the above) or accept that it is inherent with these engines? Interesting dilemma.