Technical Noticed oil leak - possible from top of dipstick

[dtimmins1985]

Hi Guys,

Noticed oil on my drive today, some of it was mayonaised - due to rain and ice defrosting on a patch of oil ( i think) and some other puddles with clean oil.

I have a new sump, it looks wet - dried it off, nothing coming from seals or sump plug - looks to have dripped from rear of engine near timbing belt casing.

Furhter inspection - can see fresh oil around the filler cap and sprays of oil on this red thingy behind the dipstick (looks like some sort of blead valve, but i dont have aircon so dunno what it is).

When looking even closer - the stupid dipstick wasnt fully inserted - it was sticking out about 1 CM - i must not of pushed it all the way down the other month when i topped up...

Bit worried tho - can oil venture that far up the dip stick pipe and spurt out?
My dads old ford escort did spit some oil once but that was only under full load with the oil cap missing off the engine (it wasnt a screw on in them days, simply sat over the filler hole on rocker cover).

Ive put the dip stick back down as normal and cleaned the area up but i wont know for sure if that was the cause until oil has fully dried up below

Thank god this car is going to heaven before the next MOT (MAY this year) and i can start a fresh a Multijet or a bravo multijet

 

[Ralf S.]

It's likely to be either the rocker cover gasket or the camshaft seal... both of which could probably wait for the next cam-belt change, to be remedied.

The cam-shaft seal is not part of the cam-belt change so you need to ask the garage to include it, if you're not doing the job yourself. They would replace the rocker gasket as part of the cam-belt work though.


Ralf S.