Where are all the possible places oil can leak from the FRS/BRZ?
 

So long story short I have a VERY slow leak coming from God know's where and currently trying to pinpoint it. As someone who's generally new to cars, i'm not even sure where to begin looking for this mysterious leak.

As far as I can tell from doing a little research, the places that other FRS/BRZ owner's seem to have oil leaks are from:
-Cam Plate (Can someone confirm if this is only on the MT or is it also on the AT?)
-Timing chain cover
-Valve Cover
-Oil drain plug
Any other places I should be checking for?

Also, even though I just named some of the places where the leak may be coming from, I have no idea where they are located on the car... Every time I do a search; for example "Cam plate oil leak", user's will post pictures of where the leak is but it's so close up I can't even tell what i'm looking at. So it would be awesome if anyone can show me WHERE on the car the things I listed above are located, thanks.

Get an oil leak detection kit. It used UV dye and comes with UV flashlight and yellow goggles. Will be cheaper than guessing. Good Luck!

front cam cover.
front main seal.
rear main seal.
head gasket.
intake valve seal.
exhaust valve seal.
PCV valve.
oil filter.
oil dip stick.
oil pressure sensor.

intake manifold gasket and exhaust manifold gaskets are possible areas too, but those are minor.

-alex

So is this cam cover not on the AT models of our cars?! Because either I am blind or looking in the wrong place. Some user somewhere said that only MT models have the cam plate/cover.

Missed the "cylinder head plate" cover on MT or vacuum pump assembly on AT cars, rear of passenger side cylinder head.

-alex

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17o7...g/original.jpg

There are multiple locations. Good luck.

It's my understanding that only the MT versions have a cam cover plate.

As far as your car's leak, I suggest you start where you see the fluid.

Then identify the fluid .... oil, coolant, brake/clutch fluid ... ??

Next, try to trace where the fluid is coming from (it may not be where the leak is), but following a path to the location where you see it.

Is it leaking to the point where it is forming a drip .. ??

Show us where you are seeing the fluid, maybe we can offer some places where it might be coming from.


humfrz

So it ended up being the most obvious place oil might leak from - drain plug. So after changing the gasket TWICE (two fresh ones), I have concluded it is not the gasket improperly seating and something with either the oil pan or the bolt itself. From the looks of it, there are no cracks in the oil pan and the drain plug seems to have no cracks in it either. Now I usually know what a stripped thread feels like but is this somehow a possibility? Like the threads are all boogered up but I can still torque it down? I'm honestly lost on this and if all else fails I guess I'll have to replace the oil pan?

P.S - At this point I don't feel like doing any shade tree fixes like putting crap on the threads to stop it from leaking, putting in a bigger sized plug, etc.

On MT, oil leaks from the rear cam plate (passenger side) and drips directly on top of the header cover. You can easily check for a leak there by swiping a paper towel underneath it.

This aftermarket part is the shape of the cam plate: http://www.raceseng.com/cam-plate-20...r-s-subaru-brz



I figure enough oil will cake on there at the seal to not be any trouble. After awhile the burning odors went away, I haven't noticed anything burning off the headers in awhile.

Easy to overlook:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54142

Nope I threw away my old one and I meticulously checked the plug for any cracks so no way I could have missed it. (I also read your thread prior to changing gaskets so I knew to look for it!)

Well, if the drain plug had been cross threaded while being put in at one time, it may be not seating squarely and the crush washer can't take up the slack. It would still torque down but leak.

If the threads are "straight" you should be able to screw it all the way in with your fingers. If you can't do that, their is a chance the it has been cross threaded.

So, since you don't want to goop it up with plumbers putty you could use plumbers tape (jest ah messen wich ya).

A new drain plug, new gasket and new oil pan ....... will fix it up first class .... :thumbsup:


humfrz

Get the thread size use a thread tap clean up the threads. Order a new pan bolt and it should be fine.

Uuuugh, I am dealing with this too! The local scion dealer cross threaded my drain plug. My car leaked oil all over my drive way. They sent a mechanic out, who "fixed" it, but did not clean all the oil. Now my car smells like a 250,000 mile car. Called and they said they would detail it, if I brought it in. Lame. Hope, you got it figured out.

I'm leaking oil right now from my oil filter. I'm tightened to specification at first and once I noticed the oil leak, tightened it more, I'm still leaking oil. Should I replace the filter?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you are getting leaks from the oil filter it is usually:
1. debris from the old seal wasn't cleaned off
2. seal on the filter is damaged
3. filter is too tight or too loose

Considering how cheap it is I would. Mine did this once before i started cleaning the tray before putting the new one on. Dont know if thats what caused it or what. If it happens again with the new one then i would imagine there is a problem

I found this link on google and thought I'd share my experience with this issue. My car seems to be leaking from a gasket under a plastic part that is connected to the bottom of the engine. It's on the front of the engine, on the drivers side. I found an image online that shows the exact location of the part. (see red arrow).



Does anyone know what this part is, so I may purchase a new gasket for it, and replace it? Thank you.



https://i.ibb.co/DLtzy7G/what-is-this-parts-name.jpg

here is a poor image of the part on my car;


https://i.ibb.co/6tKSHTh/spraying-ou...-this-part.jpg

That's a local low point that collects anything leaking from above. Look for the highest wet spot.


If it's really that gasket, -o-ring, actually- then you're looking at what's called a camshaft position sensor. Look for it in the service manual. See my sig line.

Ah, thank you so much - very helpful. I'll just add a tiny graphic here. ;) I can't seem to find the "thank you" button on here...:search:



Upon further investigation, it is a 2-drip-per-week-leak and it's either this part or the head gasket, in which case i'll try to fill the void with rtv from down undah on a non-driving day to see if that helps. The alternative is to spend approx. $2k for a tech to replace all the gaskets on the engine. And this doesn't sound too bad either, given the thought that everything would be replaced and visualized for further internal inspection.



https://i.ibb.co/QQz8M1X/ah-yes-thankyou.jpg

If that's not the culprit, most likely it's the timing chain cover.

Might be simpler to name it Dr. Drippy and top up the oil when needed.
Bring back total loss oiling.

It shouldn't cost that much to replace all the gaskets on the engine because it doesn't have very many. Most of the engine is glued together.

It is mostly labor since the engine has to come out to do the job properly. It is really quite a bit of work.

Haha... button will show up after ten posts. Weird setting. We've all discussed it. :bonk:

Welcome!

You are exactomundo. It IS the chain cover. Thank you

I'm workin on it but it's difficult to leave meaningful comments on former conversations until I get to 10 :popcorn:

One more!

Just leave unmeaningful ones. :D

Am I the only one who, with an oil leak around the timing chain cover, forgot to drain and refill their anti-freeze at or before 60k miles? I think this may have had some effect on the breakdown of the rtv seal around my timing chain cover.


Also, how feasible is it to create a rubber gasket for the chain cover, rather than using the rtv as a gasket?

No correlation between the two. Maybe if the engine overheated seriously at some point, but that's a whole other issue.

Nope. No way. This and many other modern engines are literally designed around the use of FIPS/FIPG Form In Place Gasket/Sealant.

Sometimes the oil leaks aren't visible from the outside....

I can’t believe no one has stated the most common oil leak on our engine is the hole in the side of the block from the rod!

The rod usually cracks the top of the block. The heads are on the sides. If it is leaking from the side you have likely ejected a rocker arm.

You have never seen me drive.

Ok. I read somewhere that the new 'blue' Subaru coolant had an additive that conditions the gaskets, but then that didn't make sense, because the coolant could only touch the parts that have coolant in them, not the ones that have oil in them. My mistake.




Ok, that makes sense - Robots create engines now, whereas men built the engines that I've rebuilt in the past. But just because it was created that way, doesn't mean I couldn't create a gasket to make things easier, even though it would be a massive gasket.

I saw on this website (somewhere,) a link to the exact sealant to use to complete this task, (timing chain sealant application,) and the complete directions from a manual to get the job done, but I was on another computer and google won't let me find that link on this computer. Can somebody help me find that link? I believe it was Tcoat that shared the link or info. Thank you

It might be doable. The timing chain cover does quite a bit. It's also the oil pump housing, galleries, and ports to feed the heads and block. O-rings seal the ports to the block, camshaft position sensors, etc., etc. Just seems like a lot of work to avoid using the specified sealant.

The most recent sealing procedure info was updated for the valve spring replacement.
Should be in one of those threads.

This is the first one I could dig up. It says "Revised" but you could do some more digging.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/201...8V772-6522.pdf

I've saved every one of those files. It's worth just nabbing all and reading them. Good stuff in addition to the FSM. See link in my sig line.