I took my Seicento on a 150 mile round trip at the weekend (motorway), this morning I noticed there were a couple of drops of engine oil on the garage floor. This is the first time it has done it but I've only been using it to get to work (8 miles @ 30mph). When I get chance I plan to get it up on the ramps and have a closer look as to where it is coming from.

I just wondered if this was common on the Sei's and if anyone else had a similar issue.

Usual place for leaks is the cam cover area. What does the oil smell like? Engine oil or gearbox oil?

Dont look heavy enough to be the cam or the coil pack seal to me

What does it look like down the back off the engine and around the starter motor?

As i have a sneaking thought - its either a blown input seal or blown crank seal

Checked the gearbox fluid recently?
And problems with the clutch?

Ziggy

I'm quite sure it's engine oil.

I've not checked the gearbox oil, I only got the car a couple of weeks ago.

The clutch is fine.

I'll have a look down the back of the engine tonight.

Thanks for the quick reply's!

Ed

I would change the camshaft O ring first. They are £2 and it's a 10 minute job. The oil on the "shoulder" in photo 2 is just below the coil pack.

Sorry to hijack your thread but your leak looks exactly like mine! Even the pictures look the same as the ones I've taken!!!
Was gonna do rocker gasket anyway and check the breathers but where does the camshaft o ring go and how easy is it
Need to get the leak sorted soon as I can smell burnt oil when sat in traffic

the leads to the spark plugs come from the coils, the coils live in an aluminium cadge that plugs into the end of the cylinder head the o ring is on the end of the plug

Pep0 said:

the leads to the spark plugs come from the coils, the coils live in an aluminium cadge that plugs into the end of the cylinder head the o ring is on the end of the plug

Click to expand...

Thats great thanks. Will have a look as soon as I get chance and hopefully that'll sort it!

soggytomato said:

Thats great thanks. Will have a look as soon as I get chance and hopefully that'll sort it!

Click to expand...

there are two nuts (at least) you need to undo one is obvious... it should not be too tight...

GeorgeDamper said:

I would change the camshaft O ring first. They are £2 and it's a 10 minute job. The oil on the "shoulder" in photo 2 is just below the coil pack.

Click to expand...

Photo 2 is certainly showing the area that seems to have the most oil on it.

I'll give the O ring a go, sounds fairly straight forward.

Has any one got the part number for the O ring, or a link to where I could get one from?

Cheers.

Eurocarcare Derby - They have got an Ebay site as well but I can't remember their name.

http://www.eurocarcare.net/gaskets-seals/14463980.html

Thanks George, just ordered one.

soggytomato said:

Sorry to hijack your thread but your leak looks exactly like mine! Even the pictures look the same as the ones I've taken!!!
Was gonna do rocker gasket anyway and check the breathers but where does the camshaft o ring go and how easy is it
Need to get the leak sorted soon as I can smell burnt oil when sat in traffic

Click to expand...

If you can smell burnt oil then definately flush the breather pipe through with petrol it's probably blocked up.

I would suggest from the pics it would be the cam cover easy to do dont do up the nuts too tight (bit tighter than hand tight) and put a smidge of instant gasket in the corners.

The Black Box said:

If you can smell burnt oil then definately flush the breather pipe through with petrol it's probably blocked up.

I would suggest from the pics it would be the cam cover easy to do dont do up the nuts too tight (bit tighter than hand tight) and put a smidge of instant gasket in the corners.

Click to expand...

the coil pack assembly is secured by three nuts two of them are difficult to get to...

the breather tubing from cam cover to air filter should have a restrictor which can block and prompt leaks as mentioned above purge this with oil solvent it may be removable for better cleaning but it should be replaced

Thanks for the info. Will have a look as soon as I can

the coil packs could not be any easyer to unbolt 3 Easy bolts to get to ,

The Black Box said:

If you can smell burnt oil then definately flush the breather pipe through with petrol it's probably blocked up.

I would suggest from the pics it would be the cam cover easy to do dont do up the nuts too tight (bit tighter than hand tight) and put a smidge of instant gasket in the corners.

Click to expand...

There is no smell of burnt oil with my Sei.

I've bought the O ring and will tackle that at the weekend. Is it worth doing the cam cover at the same time? Is there a guide on how to do it?

Cheers.

Oil smell idea was for another poster try the O ring and see how it goes if no improvement do cover no guides for it but easy

Remove air box
Undo 4 bolts (10mm socket) one is under or near filler
Lift off cover
Extract seal clean up area fully
Follow what I said above as to fitting it just slides in to the groove
Put back togeather
Clean up all traces of old oil so you can see if any new leaks appear

eddt1 said:

There is no smell of burnt oil with my Sei.

I've bought the O ring and will tackle that at the weekend. Is it worth doing the cam cover at the same time? Is there a guide on how to do it?

Cheers.

Click to expand...

Best to do only the o ring and the restrictor in the breather pipe, the leak may be caused by a blocked restrictor

you won't know you need the cam cover gasket done until after you fix the o ring, if you fix the o ring but don't clean the restrictor then the cam cover may spring a leak.