I left a nice trail of oil today, not knowing it until the oil light came on. Upon looking, I found oil running down the block from behind the alternator near the dipstick. Is there anything up there under pressure? It is not just a splash type leak. It has to be pressure to leak this bad. Any thoughts?

 

maybe your oil seal popped out?

 

Although this Honda technical service bulletin refers to the 94-97 Accord (5th gen Accords), some 4th gen Accords and some 6th gen Accords 4 cylinders had the problem of the balance shaft seal popping out. Most major oil leak (I mean a lot of oil leaking) was due to this. Honda made retainers to try to help hold in the seal. If it is leaking there, the seal needs to be replaced and a retainer installed.

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

 

Is the oil coming from under the black timing belt cover?

 

Well, I can't see the source of the river, there is too much in the way at the moment. I've got to get it home yet, will be tearing into it tomorrow. I was just hoping that someone would know of a common issue...and it sounds like the seals are the winner. I knew I should've replaced them BA k when I didactic the timing belts.. just didnt have the money at the time..

 

sounds like your classic balancer shaft seal popped out , after replacing it , make sure to install a retainer ,, also you might want to replace the timing belt if it got soaked with oil

 

Well, I got the Vc off, the top timing cover, and looked down in there....

And the prize goes to whoever said 'balancer shaft seal'!!!

So, while waiting to go to work, to bring home my impact and a few other tools to dig down to the timing belts and other parts, I was poking around in there as much as I could. I noticed the 'slack' side of the timing belt had a lot of slop, but I know I never adjusted the belt after I installed it 50k ago.. I think I'm gonna grab a new tensioner while I am in there.

Is there anything else I am going to need, and are any of these dealer specific? I am guessing the seal retainer would be, but are any other parts?

List of parts so far I'll need:

Seals
VC gasket set
Timing belts
tensioner
seal retainer
alt and p/s belts

And the 'Might As Wells'

Plugs and wires (oil soaked from leaking VC gasket)

How hard is it to do a oil pan gasket? Mine is about squeezed out in a few places.

And the big question - HOW DO YOU PUT THE NEW BALANCER SHAFT SEALS IN?? There is a main body piece in the way! I am planning to remove the driver side motor mount to lower the engine a little to remove the dampener pulley, but I don't see it dropping the 6-10" I need it to to clear anything, or being able to jack it up the same amount to put them in from the top!

 

How old is the current water pump? That's another "might as well" item...

 

Also, the crank and cam seals. Two tensioners, BTW.

There are any number of how-to-change-timing-belt documents kicking around. The better ones will have a description of changing all three seals and the water pump. I found one or two write-ups on the internet, had the Haynes description, and the Honda manual. I was pretty paranoid, but it went well.

Roy

 

Well if we are going there. Oil Pump o-ring/seal......