Macabre

Hi,

I've got an '86 951 with a couple specs of green fuid coming from the black plastic timing belt cover (I believe thats what that cover is anyways). There are a few drops collected on the little bar used to tension the waterpump belt. No pool or anything collecting under the car. There's also a very slow oil leak around the same area but I'm not sure if it's related. The questions:

What seals are the likely causes of the coolant leak?

Would it require removing and retensioning the timing belt?

Is it safe to drive the car this way temporarily? There's no oil in the coolant resevoir and (as far as I can tell) no coolant in the oil. I've got records of timing belt/waterpump replacement 15k miles ago. Car is running great..

I just got the car a few weeks ago and while I've already got the shop manuals I haven't bought a microfiche reader yet which is why I need to know if I can put this off for a week or two. The Haynes is useless as usual..

TIA.

Mark944na86

You might also want to consider the possibility of an A/C refrigerant leak. Check out the thread "bright green fluid leak" from a few days ago, which traces my recent experience with this.

-Mark 86 944 NA

Macabre

Hmm.. so the coolant is not the only coolant-colored fluid? How lovely.. I'd actually prefer that. My A/C is working fine though. Do any A/C lines run right around the bottom of the timing belt cover (near the water pump) ?

Thanks..

bobbygib

Have you checked your waterpump? Sounds like the seals could be going and it might be dripping coolant inside the timing belt cover. Even though it was only changed out 15k miles ago, faulty water pumps have been know to give out soon after being put in, especially some rebuilt units on which they didn't do a good job. This is not good because over time, the antifreeze could cause the rubber teeth on the timing belt to soften up and possibly be broken off. If this happens, you are looking at a very expensive valve job.

Also, the dripping water inside the cover can heat up and evaporate up into your distributor cover, resulting in trouble starting your car (this happened to me).

The very slow oil leak could be coming from your front seals.

Sounds like you might have to change out the water pump again, as well as the front seals. Might as well change out the both belts again and also the thermostat while you are at it. Consider replacing the timing/balance shaft rollers also, especially if the car has over 100k and still has the original rollers.

Macabre

The waterpump looks perfectly clean.. seems like the few drops are coming from somewhere above it. Oh well, guess I need to take the timing belt cover off. Doesn't sound like I need to be too worried about driving it temporarily though..

The car always takes 3 or 4 revolutions to start up but that didn't seem to abnormal to me. I assume you mean by trouble starting that it won't start at all because the contacts are wet.

Macabre

Well, looking through the maintenance history again the water pump was NOT replaced 15k ago when the timing belt and front engine seals were (doh!). That's probably what it is then since it's almost certainly the early style pump..

Thanks for all the advice.