OK in my paranoia that my 2001 Accord is going to die on me any moment (really not reason to worry but at 200,000 miles I get a little jittery).

I've been going through oil a little faster than normal and my driving is way down in the past year (was driving almost 3,000 miles a month just to get to work, down to 1000 miles/month period). I think I find a small issue with oil coming from the oil pan "connection" (easy fix). Now I found oil under the distributor.

From the distrubutor and going down the is a coating of oil, pretty much only on that side of the engine, I can't find any oil on the other side. It almost starts at the horizontal middle of the distributor and goes down from there. No noticeable "leak" (i.e. no spots on the driveway) just a "coating".

Any thoughts on where this is coming from that I could fix at home? I'm taking it in for a new timing belt/water pump (overdue on that, almost 90K on this one) and the more I can fix myself the better (timing belt/water pump and switch out of transmission fluid is about $700 - checked 3 places around here and they're all pretty much the same, dealer and 2 independents).

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Remove the distributor cap and see if there is any oil inside.

If not, then you will probably need to replace the o-ring that sits in the cylinder head on the distributor shaft.

If there is oil inside of the distributor, there is a rubber grommet that you can replace, but it will require some more information on how to replace it.

Read this thread about the things you need to do to change out the o-ring. https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...ad.php?t=23636

#5 is the o-ring that I am talking about. The grommet isn't shown.

 

sounds easy enough, I can't get to it until next week but should be simple, even for me. I put a new cap/rotor on about 20,000 miles ago.

Assuming it is just the O-ring, and here is my stuipid question for the day (as I am a basic car guy), do I need to drain the oil to replace the O-ring or is just take off the distributor, replace and put it back on?

 

just remove distr and replace o-ring............mark the position of the distr so you can reinstall it on the same spot

 

Have you checked your countershaft seal? I only ask because i started using more oil and it looked as if i had a leak from my oil pan but it turned out the be the countershaft seal. Luckily I managed to get stopped before my engine seized. Make sure if there is no retaining clip on the seal that you put one on!

 

UPDATE

Finally got around to this. The O Ring was definitely bad, it had a nice flat edge on it. The gasket between the distributor and the cap was bad too (somehow got cut and was coming out the bottom of the cap) so I replaced that, I don't think that had anything to do with the oil leaking though. Road test didn't show any oil leakage but probably too soon to tell.

All is back together with no extra parts laying around!

 

Is the O ring the same in a '99 accord. I also have a coating of oil on the distributor cap side that is facing front. Oil also is on the engine below the cap and valve cover. It looks like the oil is seeping from a seal between the block and head just below the valve cover.

 

1999 has the same kind of setup where the distributor installs into the head. Even if the O-ring is different, just buy the one for your car. The idea is the same.

Clean up the engine & look for where the leak is coming from. The gasket between the head & block is down quite a bit lower. Below the exhaust manifold actually. When you mention the seal between the block & head, just below the valve cover, it's confusing. How far below the valve cover?

 

hello I have a 1995 Honda Accord I replaced both O-rings on a distributor put it back on and it’s still leaking oil from this little void space underneath it I don’t know how oil is getting into it why? Help? Now my Honda cranks but it doesn’t turn over I cleaned all the spark plugs all the cables and nothing!

 

I'm not sure what void space you mean? There's a little opening; probably to allow oil to drain out if the internal seal starts leaking.

First thing is to figure out exactly where the oil is getting through.