someone PLEASE help me

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djextremity

Senior Member
alright so today I went to pick up my sister from school, and I came home and everything was all good. Well I go out an hour later, and there is a HUGE puddle of oil underneath the car. I open the hood and there is oil covering the whole right side of the engine bay. The left side was CLEAN, just the right side that was dirty. I couldn't really see where the oil was coming from because the whole thing was covered..can anyone PLEASE help me?
 
shit sorry, the DRIVER side was covered whereas the PASSENGER side was clean. =X
how many main seals are there? that's the one behind the harmonic balancer right? i really need to get under the car, but i'm trying to get a feel for what to look for when i'm there..
 
well, what i would do is try to pin point the problem...

-is it a leak?
if so- it would be coming from mostly one part of something, and dripping down to form a nice puddle.
-is it a gash in something?
if so- it would spray randomly around the bay.
see what I mean? its kinda hard to explain
 
the thing is it looks as if the timing belt was spraying oil all over the place, pretty much all of it is covered in oil and the space on the hood directly above it has a nice proportional rectangle of oil..
what could i use to clean out the oil so that i can see a bit better in there?
 
ok thats probly the front main seal then ... i was on the rong right side ..... its an easy fix
 
i LOVE to hear easy fix! lol call me a pain or an idiot or whatever..but i'm not real good at the real technical stuff..small components, etc..which one is that? is that the one at the crank pulley..?
 
yeah take the pulley off... take the timing belt off.... take the cog off... behind that youll find a rubber O ring (judging by your description you might not) take that out ... put a new one in ... put all the other crap back ... make sure your timing is ok and your set
 
just curious, a mod at civicland thought it was the same thing and told me i wouldn't be able to change it in with the engine in the car..what gives?
 
that depends on if you need to replace the timing belt or not ... if you do ... you need to remove the power steering bracket and drop the motor mount that the belt is around so you can get it off ... if not.... you can do it with the engine in place....
if it was the rear main seal ... you need to pull the engine .... or at least take the tranny off so you can get behind the flywheel
 
do you think the belt could survive being doused in like 4 qts of 10w40? if the rear main seal is near the flywheel, i don't think it could have shot all its oil over to the drivers side shock tower/timing belt area, could it have?
 
nah that would be the front main... it depends on how old the belt is .... its probly a good idea to swap it out but if its still new its not as big of a deal ... they are designed to be oil resistant
 
right on..i am feeling more and more confident! =] i should be able to do this without an impact gun, right? i know it was easy to get the pulley off with the gun, but if i don't have it, will i be alright with a ratchet and a big pipe? =X i'm also a bit wary of keeping the timing on spec..how do i make sure it all stays aligned correctly?
 
you just need to make sure you set it to TDC before you take it off then set the timing after you get the belt back on ... its not too hard to do ... do you have a book?
 
=[ no book..i did the swap up at my godfather's shop and he had all the books..but I don't have anything..it's a zc anyways, we used an integ book but some aspects are different, like the markings on the cam gears. I figure what I can do is put in a quart, then turn it over to TDC manually, then mark off that point in relation to the cam gears with a pencil or something before I take off the t-belt.
now another question -- if i clean out the engine bay (btw how should i approach this situation), can i put a couple of quarts of oil and start the engine up to see where the oil is leaking from? or is this a bad idea?
 
if you want to clean up the oil, get Purple Power degreaser. its in the automotive detailing section at wal mart. it looks like a container of anti-freeze. its $4 here. it works like simple green on steriods. ive used it alot on my engine. dont buy any of those spray degreasers. they dont do a damn thing except smell really bad.

you'll want to put some in a spray bottle (an empty simple green bottle works great).
 
and that'll work well for straight motor oil? do you know if they have that at autozone, i could just walk or skate there, but walmart..i dont wanna walk..

i don't wanna like get it spotless, just clean enough so i can see what's going on down there..i'll probably detail it when its running well and i feel like repainting my valve cover..
 
yea, autozone should have it...if walmart has it, autozone's gotta. i know it will work, but maybe u can ask the guy there is there is anything better...thouhg i doubt it. if he tries to sell you an expensive spray degreaser, he's being gay.
 
lol yeah too bad at my local autozone there is this tool who always thinks he is a dope salesman and tries to sell all this crap, but i'm like no.
 
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