Tightened bolts on valve cover then check engine light came on..?

Post by **erikv11** » 03 Jan 2016, 23:25

bmdubya1198 wrote:Great... mine is missing two bolts (I have new ones) and it appears to be sealed with black RTV. I see traces of oil around the seal, too. I need to look into replacing it without damaging or losing any parts. My turbo may be leaking oil too... great. Sorry to go somewhat off topic...

You really want to clean up the RTV ASAP. One of the troubles is, there may be clumps of RTV inside and if they break loose they can clog oil passages. Otherwise, it is mainly just a leaky mess. My current V70 came to me all sealed up with RTV, lots of heavy goop all over to try to patch the leaky seams, a total mess. I cleaned it up and 40k later it is humming.

Post by **rspi** » 04 Jan 2016, 05:09

As mentioned, these cars do NOT have a "valve" cover. There is the cosmetic spark plug cover with 6 screws and the cam cover that has about 40 10mm bolts which almost NEVER leaks oil.

Feel free to discard the plastic spark plug cover, now the cam cover is a REAL BIG deal to remove and install. The cam cover is an integral part of the engine which hold the cams in place. Again, it almost never leaks oil and is usually only removed to remove the head or replace lifters. The cam cover does NOT have a gasket but uses a special sealant (anaerobic) to help seal it.

As for the check engine light, tightening the bolts on the cover had nothing to do with that. If you just got the car the error codes was likely pending.

Post by **abscate** » 04 Jan 2016, 08:00

There is a cold lonely stretch of road, with a grifter transmission shop, where God fails the transmisisons of people who clear the CEL before they sell their problem car to the next person.

Post by **dosbricks** » 04 Jan 2016, 08:13

Erik, I stand corrected.

Reading comprehension fail.

Hey Robert, but when he tightened the bolts he also got a "weird clicking noise" from the engine. Maybe as Neil suggested, a bad plug wire arcing and set a misfire code? Affirm Gin, take the spark plug cover off, start the car, and and use a dry wood stick (high amperage shock danger) to move the wires around a little bit to see if the clicking stops.

Maybe we will eventually be able to help this new member despite our over eagerness and philosophizing.

Post by **bmdubya1198** » 04 Jan 2016, 09:39

abscate wrote:There is a cold lonely stretch of road, with a grifter transmission shop, where God fails the transmisisons of people who clear the CEL before they sell their problem car to the next person.

That's a good way to be hated by the new owner of a car. So is "touching up" paint with a 98 cent Walmart rattle can...

dosbricks wrote:Maybe we will eventually be able to help this new member despite of our over eagerness and philosophizing.

The OP needs to provide us with P-codes before we can do anything!

Gin · Post by **Gin** » 05 Jan 2016, 01:18

K. So I did the ob test (actually a friend did) for some reason his tester wouldn't show the cods(?). But he did clear them.. Anyway got a smog today no problem! Thank god, but shortly after the smog, my check engine light again!
So, I took it to my friend at AutoZone; THANK YOU JASON!; he ran the ob on it and it had random misfire, misfire on 2 cylinder's, something with the air bypass? I was thinking maybe that oil leak got on plugs? So we're about to change plugs and oil+filter.. Should I put engine oil stop leak???

Post by **erikv11** » 05 Jan 2016, 06:37

What did you tighten in the original post, how tight?

No engine oil stop leak, ever.

The engine probably has vacuum leaks. Ask Jason for the actual code numbers and post those up, especially the "air bypass" one the misfires are not as important.

Post by **abscate** » 05 Jan 2016, 07:30

The guys at AZ love to tell you 'problem' without giving you the actual "P-code" in format P-0000. Its important to get the P code as it is a good guide to solving the multiple problems with your car....its rarely just one.

The P-code does NOT tell you 'replace this' - you still have to input the information into brain, process, and formulate plan....or use MVS as brain.

Gin · Post by **Gin** » 05 Jan 2016, 07:47

The guy at auto zone is actually someone I used to date... And I'm sure buying my parts and putting the plugs in at 6:30am in the pouring rain and he's gotta work at 7....isn't helping him gain a thing as far as a AZ employee goes.. But I will post the codes soon as he's done.
Question, would the car pass smog with those codes??

Gin · Post by **Gin** » 05 Jan 2016, 07:50

Bad news.. He pulled plugs on cylinder 4&5... There's water in the moter... Blown head gasket... What's that,, a million roller fix??!!