First time caller. Recently purchased the car for winter use in the Highlands. Gave the engine bay a good degrease, however after a trip to Scotland and back, there was quite a bit of oil over the rear of the engine, and around the cambelt cover. Further investigation tonight, and there is quite a bit of wet engine oil under the cambelt cover itself (top part). The oil pan is a bit weepy

No documented history of a cambelt change (told it has had one though) but did say it had an oil leak fixed (from previous MOT). No noticeable oil loss over the trip and car pulls well compared to another 1.4 we have. I'm happy (big gulp) to get my hands oily, and would prefer to keep the car going.

Advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

Chris

That does look a bit of a mess.  Can't see any specific area's of leakage on those pictures though.  That sprocket at the back of the engine is for the fuel pump, so there's no oil coming from that.  It could leak diesel, but you should be able to smell the difference between those two.

On 10/17/2023 at 10:50 AM, TomsFocus said:

That does look a bit of a mess.  Can't see any specific area's of leakage on those pictures though.  That sprocket at the back of the engine is for the fuel pump, so there's no oil coming from that.  It could leak diesel, but you should be able to smell the difference between those two.

Hi Tom, yes it is abit oily, however the cambelt is fairly oil free?? I gave the engine a good degrease after purchase, only after the 1100mile round trip was there evidence all over the bottom of the engine that oil was leaking. Seems to only leak when being driven, if that doesn't sound silly? Oil is definitely coming from up high, and not out of the main oil seal (experince of this in another car). Also no sign or smell of leaking diesel.

13 hours ago, Chris0271 said:

Seems to only leak when being driven, if that doesn't sound silly? Oil is definitely coming from up high...

Not at all, oil is only pressurised and forced to the top end when running.  With engine off all the oil drains back to sump within seconds.

There are really only 3 places that oil could leak that high up and into the cambelt cover.  The camshaft seal, the head gasket or the rocker cover gasket.

The middle two pictures show a potential head gasket weep at the front, but that's really not big enough to worry about.  I can't tell from the pictures whether the cam seal is leaking, but it doesn't appear to be.

*Edit* - On the 1.4 TDCI the cylinder head is in the 3 parts - the head itself, then the camshaft carrier on top, then the camshaft retainer on top of that.  It looks like these parts are either sealed by liquid sealant or magic.  So chances are the leak is coming from between the sections of the head itself.  Not an easy fix, you would need to remove the cambelt to remove the camshaft before being able to clean up and reseal those surfaces.