You guys helped me with the CEL light and the SRS light so now lets see about the oil leak. Driver side and coming out at a pretty good rate. Seems to be coming from the timing belt area. My investigation shows a number of seals and various opportunities for oil to escape in that area. Is there one common seal that is usually the culprit in this area? I'm going to have to turn this one over to a pro. Do you think this is a dealer job or can a local garage handle it? Thanks for your thoughts.

 

-Balance shaft seal and retainer
-Camshaft seal
-Crankshaft seal

You will need to remove the covers and take a peek. If the balance shaft seal retainer wasn't installed on the last timing belt job, that could be the culprit.

 

When was the timing belt last changed? If one of the seals needs replaced, they have to remove the timing belt to get to the seals. No better time to replace the timing belt and water pump if they are due.

 

This would be my first guess as well, since Honda didn't install a retainer for that seal. There is one available that Dorman makes though (I get mine thru Rock Auto for about 5 bucks), and I install 1 on every car that I do a timing belt on that uses a balance shaft, as it's cheap insurance. I only say that as my wife's car (2000 Accord w/2.3L 4 cylinder) puked that seal out in the driveway, and dumped 2+ quarts of oil in 30 feet (the engine was idling). I ended up giving it a full oil change after I fixed it.

 

I have no idea if the belt has ever been changed. This car was like a lost dog that found it's way to my house. I stopped by my local shop yesterday and spoke with the owner. He told me they could put some dye in the oil to verify where the leak was coming from. I'm about 99% sure the leak is behind the timing cover. I guess if I go that route and it is as I suspect I should do the water pump while I'm in there. Looks like I'm going to have this car for a while so what the heck. The car seems pretty solid to me other than the oil leak.

 

Well, IF you're willing to spend some time, you could remove the valve cover, so you can remove the upper half of the timing cover. To do so, remove the spark plug wires first, then with a 10mm socket and a ratchet (I use a 1/4 drive), remove the 5 nuts that hold it on. Now you can "pop" it off (you might need to lever a corner of the cover to get it to release). To get the upper timing cover off, you'll have to work a little harder as 2 of the 3 screws is easy to get to (1 is on the outer edge while the 2nd one is in the middle of the cover), but the 3rd one is hard to get at, as it's on the far side of the cover across from the shock/strut tower and is a tight squeeze. Once you get the out, you pull it toward the tower, and then lift it off. Now you can use a flash light to see where the oil might be coming from.
Just so you know, I've got a 99 Accord with a 2.3 L engine in it, and my wife has a 2000 Accord with a 2.3L in it and I do all of the required maintenance on both (can't afford to send them to a shop), so I'm a little familiar with these engines and cars.

Edit; I should also mention that Eric the car guy (on you tube) has some excellent videos on doing some of this (like replacing the valve cover gasket), and could help give you a visual on what I'm talking about above.

 

Thanks Toecutter, I watched a timing belt change video on you tube for a 2.3L and it's beyond my shade tree capabilities. I'm going to call my local dealer and see if I can get a phone quote for a timing belt and seals on the car to get some idea of what I might be looking at.

 

Well if your dealer is anything like mine, that's an 800 dollar job minimum.
The first timing belt I ever did on a Honda, was my wife's car. I bought the special socket from O'reilly's (you can rent it too), and got the water pump and timing belt kit thru Rock Auto (it came with new tensioners too, and an Aisin water pump). I think I had about 175 into both, and I've used the socket several times now on other projects. The very good instruction sheet that came with the kit said it should take about 3 3/4 hours, but I did it in 4.5 hours, as I was double checking my work on the belt alignment. I was also using the Haynes manual as a reference guide, that I had bought shortly after getting the car. I mainly went into it because I had a water pump that was leaking (out the weep hole on the pump), but figured that was also the best time to do the belts as I had no idea of when they were last done.That was over 17K miles ago, and almost 2 years ago. We've even took the car on 2 road trips this year totaling almost 6K miles with no issues. You can do it with some hand tools, time and patience. The key is to NOT get in a hurry, and pay attention to what you're doing.