Mystery liquid below front of engine Topic is solved

chris11211 · Post by **chris11211** » 14 Mar 2021, 17:54

Well its been a good year now and the money pit is now demanding more tributes.

There's been a weird liquid around the subframe where the engine mount to the front of the engine is. However there hasn't been any new liquid for weeks, and it hasn't evaporated or sloshed around, so it's either motor oil or something else.

It seems like it could just be time for a premature timing belt job with seals or hopefully it's something else. I'm just wondering if someone else ahs been through something like this.

No noticeable loss of oil in over 2 months 600+ miles since last oil change

Post by **GlennG2759** » 14 Mar 2021, 18:12

Could be oil from one of the acorn shaped (2 of them) motor mounts?

chris11211 · Post by **chris11211** » 14 Mar 2021, 18:16

No it would've dried up and this is the front where the timing belt is. I'm gonna have to open the covers do I have to remove the serpent belt in order to get the cover off?

darylrobert · Post by **darylrobert** » 14 Mar 2021, 20:43

remove timing belt cover and give area degreasing, the common leak is from the camshaft seals

Post by **jonesg** » 15 Mar 2021, 02:08

chris11211 wrote: ↑14 Mar 2021, 18:16 No it would've dried up and this is the front where the timing belt is. I'm gonna have to open the covers do I have to remove the serpent belt in order to get the cover off?

no, just pull the top cover, if the seals are leaking it will show inside the cover as it gets slung around.
With no oil on the ground I wouldn't bother in this cold.

Post by **oragex** » 15 Mar 2021, 06:39

Have a look from above of the power steering pump downwards. You also have the thermostat about there and the small hose does leak sometimes coolant

Post by **cn90** » 15 Mar 2021, 21:50

- I have to check but I don't know if the engine mount is oil-filled or not.
Search for photos of "collapsed engine mount" to see if you have this problem.

- Cam seals: yes, I currently have cam seal leak (not major, just minor leak) and oil is found in that area.

As a rule, if no oil on the garage floor then don't bother fixing it, unless you are an environmentalist...

chris11211 · Post by **chris11211** » 15 Mar 2021, 22:15

Little update

Timing belt, gears, and cover are all dry to the bone. And both resivoirs are dry underneath so there's a bigger chance that it could be the harmonic balancers seal, but no way to know until i get in there.

Popped in more pictures showing the passenger side of the subframe is coated with i guess oil, but no way to know until it gets warmer and i can reach it. The thing has a funny way of hiding under the engine.

Oil level is still the same.

@darylrobert You're saying that it's just common for the engine to spit out a bit of oil and just re-seal itself?

RichCrewe · Post by **RichCrewe** » 15 Mar 2021, 23:28

Is it power steering fluid? I recently had this spontaneously decide to leak from the resovoir. It ran down the inside of the wing and onto the subframe. It's much thinner than oil.

chris11211 · Post by **chris11211** » 07 Apr 2021, 23:23

Hey guy, just following up with looking into what's going on with the leak.

Apparently it's an oil leak and I believe it is the camshaft seals, so it looks like it'll need a pre-mature timing belt job. I'm gonna have my inde mech look at it and do the job since it's not something you'd want to make a mistake and go back into it again.

Let me know what seal do you think is busted. Thoughts, etc.