kimnkk

Hey my s2k AP1 seems to have a headgasket leak i think.

It looks like there is oil seeping around the front of the head above the timing cover. To me this seems strange as ive never seen a head gasket leak externally, only internally where it burns oil or coolant. In this case, its not burning anything. There just seems to be oil around where the head meets the block and at the front of the timing cover as shown in these pics:






Its not leaking much but i just want to see other people opinions on the matter. Has anyone seen this sort of problem before?

AusS2000

Behind the timing cover is a timing chain. There is no clamping force between the cover and head except two bolts at the front and no pressure behind them.

Yes, you have some seepage, but this isn't a blown head gasket by any stretch of the imagination.

Petah78

I have the same seepage on my MY00 as well and it only has aprox 18k miles. I read that this is pretty common and the leak is quite slow so i didn't bother looking into the issue further.

dales2000

so there is no fix to this?

AusS2000

I'm not sure anything is broken.

If you want to fix it it would involve pulling the timing cover and resealing. I guess that means pulling the sump too. That is assuming the leak is below the head gasket. If it's above.... well I'd live with it.

crank

ya there is a fix, there are some small O rings you can buy, search around because i have seen threads with pics/instructions on how to seal it....bilman has also posted in them with detailed instructions

but as the above guy said it is fixable its just involves a lot of work since the timing chain cover is sandwiched between the oil pan and head.

kimnkk

So there's nothing wrong? Also where exactly is the oil coming from? There's oil splashing around in the timing case right? Also, in the second picture, it shows that there's oil right down the seems and a bit of it spread over next to where the oil filter/oil cooler mounts.

Im gonna do an oil change soon since i just got the car so ill have a better look from below. I might tighten up those allen bolts too and see if it slows it after i degrease it a bit.

I'll also have a look into that O ring trick and see what i can do.

Thanks for the help!

crank

ya no prob, i would suggest cleaning the old grime off really good then starting fresh so u know exactly where the oil is coming from.