Hey there,

I hate asking this type of question but maybe someone can give me some pointers. I pulled my girlfriend's car out of our carport and there was no oil underneath. Drove about 1 mile and the oil light was flashing. I looked back and there was a looong stream of oil. After parking, the oil kept leaking. Checked the dipstick; bone dry. Forgive me, environmentalists, but I added oil to it and drove it home. Once again, it all leaked out, and continues to leak even after parking.

So here's my question. I live in Portland, Oregon where it is currently dumping rain. There's no way for me to get under this thing to see where the oil is coming from. I haven't changed too many gaskets, especially on the underside of the car; even worse, I'm not super familiar with her car. Besides checking to see if the oil plug is leaking and checking around the oil pan, does anyone have any recommendations for places to check? Never seen a gasket blow like that.

Thanks for any pointers.

 

Your going to have to get the car to a shop if you have no way of safely getting under the car for a visual inspection. It would seem to me if oil is leaking that bad, it would not be too hard to find the source of the oil leak.

Good luck, let us know what you find.

 

There are a few sources that can cause a major leak. Look for a missing drain plug. Oil filter missing or damaged. These would be the simple fixes.

There is a seal under the timing belt cover that can pop loose and cause a major oil leak. If there is oil coming from under the timing belt cover, you are going to have to change the timing belt and the bad seal(s).

Obviously do not drive the car until you get the problem fixed.

Do you plan on fixing this yourself?

 

yes. during high speed travel yrs ago my drain plug vibrated out, dumping load of oil.

 

I would STOP driving the car till you get a chance to get underneath and find that leak.

 

Thanks guys. I'll check the areas you all mentioned. Course I won't be driving this thing till it's fixed. Just wanted some pointers so that when the heavy downpour ends here in Oregon, I can jack it up and take a look underneath. Hoping it ain't a timing belt seal of any sort. We are actually moving cross country and planned on selling this car in about a month. However, I am gearing up to do the timing belt on my 99 Civic for the first time so hell, maybe I'll become experienced enough to do it on this car and improve the sell value. Only crappy part is it has 150k miles, and got the full timing belt service at around 90k, so the belt would be getting done a little early. Oh well, things could be worse. Hopefully it's just a drain plug or filter. Thanks guys, I'll reply with the area the leak came from when I find it.

 

The ericthecarguy site (or YouTube channel) shows how to do a timing belt on a Civic engine as one of the free videos. The engine is out of the car, but it can't hurt.

He does have an accord timing belt video for sale for $10 or $11. That is an excellent video that pretty much covers 90-02 4-cylinder accords. If you never did a timing belt replacement, this is an excellent source of information.

The one thing he doesn't do is to lock the rear balance shaft in place before he removes the balance shaft belt. He takes some short cuts, because he is an experienced acura tech. We can explain this in more detail if you want.

 

If the oil pours out almost as fast as you put it in I could believe the drain plug. Has the oil been changed lately? I have had people not check when removing the old filter and the old gasket sticks to the block allowing oil to leak. I have also had people not tighten the filter properly and it loosens up while driving. Most other problems with oil leaks usually go away while the engine is not running.

 

Well, it looks like it's coming from under the timing belt cover. There's a good amount of oil coming out of where the upper and lower cover meet. I took off the valve cover just to make sure it wasn't leaking from there and into the timing belt area. Unfortunately it's not. There's a decent amount of oil within the camshaft (?) area and on the belt.

So, maybe someone can give me some advice. Hate to spill my personal crap on here but perhaps you guys will have some suggestions. I'm moving to grad school in about two months. I have a 99 Civic that is in much better condition than this 96 Accord, so we were planning on selling it. The car is in good condition with one exception: someone barely tapped it in an accident (you can't even tell impact occurred) and it was enough to activate both airbags. Thus, the car is totaled in a sense... I know these suckers cost a lot, so we figure the car only values at anywhere from $500 - $1000. However, this would definitely help us move to grad school! In any event, I'm not sure what to do now. I don't know if it's even worth the hassle, and if I should sell this thing for parts or what. Ironically, I'm planning on doing the timing belt on my Civic for my first time, so I'll have the breaker bar, pulley bolt removal tool, etc. etc. Since my Civic is drivable, I can take it to my friend's garage. However, since the Accord is now undrivable, I have no option but to leave it here in the carport of my apartment complex. I might be able to get away with doing it (the timing belt and gaskets) here. Meh... Maybe someone can weigh in whether it's even worth the time. It's got 150k miles on it. The inside of the engine looks all nice and golden brown. I'd hate to throw it away. Sorry for the rant. What would you guys do?

 

I would find a U-pull-it junkard and see if you can find replacement air bags. I think that they can sell them to you. Laws may vary from state to state.

The two timing belts and water pump plus the seals will cost less than $100. If you can do a timing belt job on a civic, you can do it on an accord.

I would also look at a site like autotrader to see what similar accords are listed. I think that you could ask for more than $1000.