I have a slow, but steady oil leak coming from the Front Cover Seal, near the OMP, how easy is to fix the leak with the engine on the car, Help?

 

I would first check and see if it's the stepping motor connection leaking and not the actual front cover seal leaking.

If it's the front cover seal, the front cover has to come off to repair it. For a shop to do it, you are looking at around $1300.

 

Stepping motor?

 

is comming from the bolt on top of the OMP, look like the front co

 

Cover seal, arround the seal is fine in other areas just that side were the OMP is

 

There is an o-ring that is between the engine and the metering oil pump. It could be as simple as replacing that o-ring. However, you'll have to remove the metering oil pump to see if the leak is actually coming from the o-ring connection or the actual front cover seal.

 

i did and replace the o-ring in the OMP, the leak is comming betwen the bolt and the front cover, where the cover and the engine meet, is a slow leak, but steady

 

Better Picture

 

Well, that would have been nice to know had you put that in your original post.

To repair a front cover leak, you basically need to remove everything off the front of the engine, drop the oil pan, and then you'll have access to remove the front cover.

 

I would replace the o-ring and all the crush washers for the oil metering pump, clean up the area with brake cleaner, and then drive around for a while and see if the leak comes back. The front cover is a tough job to do with the motor in the car. It is much easier to clean everything off and get a good seal if you just pull the motor.

 

thanks for all the replies, and more replies are welcome

 

I had a front cover leak for years and it eventually got to point that I had to replace it. It wasn't done properly by a rotary shop and 3 months later I spun a bearing. I ended up needing a rotor housing, E- shaft, new bearings and a couple of other things. Just make sure it's done right.

 

Thanks is in the process, if i take the engine out for this, i will rebuild the engine, need a couple of thing first, thanks for the advice and more are welcome

 

If the engine is worn, I would just do a rebuild on the whole thing. Check your compression, if the compression numbers are good then just reseal the front cover.

 

The compression is good, the car runs great, no issues, just the oil leak...................

 

If the compression is good, I would just fix the leak. If the leak is not bad (i.e. a few drips a week), then you probably could live with it until it becomes a real problem. You'll just have to keep eye on your oil level a little more than you would without the leak.


It's not a bad job, it's just time consuming considering the amount of components that need to be remove (and then reinstalled) to get to that area.

 

I had a bad front cover leak. A local rotary shop quoted me $1,200 bucks to fix it. They said that basically every thing had to come off the motor.

 

I talk to a friend localy here, pretty good mechanic, and we find a more sutable method of doing it, if we lift the engine a little to get the bolts off the oil pan and rmvd all the front componets, we get a new seal on easy, is a little time, but the engine do not need to come off the car,

 

That is correct, you can lift the engine and not remove it to do the fix.

 

I have removed and replaced the front cover while the engine is still bolted in the mounts on 3 seperate occasions. If you remove the items from the front of the engine (Alt., H20 housing, OMP and lines, and whatever else in in the way (like the stock IC, etc), drain the oil, and remove the front pulley, carefully run a blade across the gasket/seal at the oil pan, you can remove the front cover, clean it, and reseal it. It's a bit tedious, you need to make sure the oil pan is clean and make sure you put adequate High temp RTV (Like Hondabond) in the corners, but it is doable in an afternoon. Just reassemble and let the RTV set overnite before adding fluids.

 

any recomendations in using the factory gasket or rtv

 

anyone.......

 

use hondabond...the oil pans gasket sucks....lol. i just did this to my 7 last weekend. its not that bad just be prepared for the damn crank bolt.

 

Do u really need to remove the water pump housing too?

Don't want to break any seals that I don't have to.

 

Yes you do.