Hey i bought a 97 Accord EX-L couple of months ago its a 2.2 vtec Auto
It had a slight leak when i bought it but didnt bother me too much as I just kept on adding a little bit. Then lately within the past month its been getting worse and worse. Right now its at the point where the car is virtually undriveable, as its seems to go from having a full case to not reaching the dipstick within 2 days/ about 50 miles. lol.
Now, everything is covered in oil. Its soaked top to bottom, front to back underside of the car. I replaced the valve cover gasket, so that doesnt leak anymore. But the leak overall is only getting worse. My question is what are the most common things to leak? the car has 154000 miles on it and before me was owned by a teenage girl who didnt take care of it for ****. There seemed to be quite some sludge in the motor from when i did the valve cover gasket.
Thanks for help

 

Clean up as much oil as possible from the block. Use some engine greaser. It sounds like the leak is bad enough that you should get a decent idea of the location without having to run the engine too long.

Here are some common sources for oil leak. Distributor (remove dist cap to see if oil is inside as well). Oil sending unit. Oil filter. Oil pan gasket. Vtec solenoid. Valve cover. Any of the seals under the timing belt cover (front balance shaft should have a retainer installed to prevent this from happening). The rear main seal.

Also check PCV valve.

Do you know when the timing belt was replaced on this car?

 

If it's leaking out a lot, it may be the balancer shaft oil seal. See TSB:

tegger.com/hondafaq/tsb/accord/x00-073e.pdf

 

I have absolutely no records of any maintenance done on this car, i got it for very cheap, but im sure it was not maintained too well. The Leak is all on the tranny (pass) side of things, the timing belt cover side doesnt show any oil at all. On the bass side everything is covered in oil from valve cover gasket down. i Replaced the distributor cap yesterday which came with the new gasket for it also. When the car idles, a puddle accumulates rather quickly under the passenger side of the oil pan. It might be the rear seal, but i doubt the rear seal could generate a leak of this mass.

 

There is an o-ring that sits on the distributor and the cylinder head that you should replace. That is not the same o-ring that you got with the distributor cap. Was there any oil in the distributor when you removed the cap?

You should mark the housing of the distributor and the cylinder head with a pencil. You do this so you can reinstall the distributor and turn it to its previous timing. I would remove the distributor cap and note which way the rotor is pointing, so you eliminate the change of installing it 180 degrees out of time. The distributor is held on by 3 bolts. The o-ring is on the back of the distributor housing. It has to be <$5 for a new one and a good place to start.

I would call your local honda dealership to find out if they have any information on service/recalls done on that car. The timing belt is the most critical thing to consider right now.

The oil sending unit on the back of the engine above the oil filter has a rubber boot around the electrical connector. Pull off that boot (it may feel like hard plastic due to getting brittle with age/heat) and see if it is filled with oil. That could fool you into thinking that the valve cover was leaking, because it is high up on the engine.

Also remove the oil filter and see if the old filter gasket could have gotten stuck on the engine block.

All this stuff is inexpensive to check/fix and a good place to start.

 

Thank you very much for your help

 

Rear seal normally can't leak "uphill" towards the valve cover gasket. So... how about a leaking valve cover gasket? Oil leaking from where the distributor sticks into the head?

First job is to find where it's leaking from. Lots of possibilities that are easy to fix once we know.

 

My 97 leaked at the oil sending unit. It was an easy fix.

 

Another thing to check are the VTEC (EX should have this) pressure switch and solenoid as another source...located back pass side of the head.....

 

i am having the same problem, so post when u find your issue bc my problem is identical to what urs is.........so help me out too! im thinking oil sending unit or oil pan...