all623

I removed the engine tray and in horror found 2 different leaks under the motor area and need help identifying what they are before I go to a shop. The 1st photo is on the left rear of the car. The 2nd photo is on the right rear of the car. By the way, the inside of the engine tray on the right side showed fluid in the bottom toward the front with no heavy puddling just damp in the general area and no sign of dampness on the left side of the tray. Appreciate help on: 1) what the part leaking is referred to 2) the seriousness of each leak 3) what each leak should cost. If I need better photos or description, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

GabiOsz

It looks like cam chain cover leaks to me, not sure of the cost, but I'm fairly sure they are not too major or expensive to fix.

Mike J

Its a bit of work but definitely doable while the engine is in the car. I would replace the rubber donuts on the hold down bolts as well as the gasket....cheap insurance if you are in there anyways. If it was a DIY I would budget at least a full day...you have to drop part of the exhaust and heater tubes to get to the cover bolts.

You can live with these kinds of leaks for years...it depends on your tolerance for a bit of burnt oil smell or any small messes that happen. If the car does not drip but is just wet then I would try to tighten the lids a bit and see what happens...if you get a pool of oil on the floor then fix it. Again, its all up to you.

Cheers,

Mike

993inNC

It is rumoured that they can be changed with the motor in, but I beleive the usual route is engine drop to get at the covers properly. Its not terribly critical to worry about by the looks of the pics. Mine looked like that, I took a SMALL attempt to twist the bolts, cleaned the areas with brake cleaner and they barely leak at best now

tj90

I tightened my bolts with low torque - you cant quite get to all of them but you can get most of them. Now they are wet and dont leak. I will replace the gaskets and rubber during my next clutch change engine drop.

Mike J

Well, since I actually timed my cams while the engine was in the car (see my DIY engine rebuild saga) I would say its more than a rumor ;-) There also was another rennlister who removed his power steering pump using an impact gun and lost his timing...he also timed the cams in the car. IMHO its definitely less work to do it in the car than drop the engine.

Cheers,

Mike

993MAN

I agree with Mike. Don't drop the engine. I managed to do my Turbo 3.6 (965) with the engine in.
Took a while like the guys say, but it is a do-able task. The skin, will as always, grow back!
May the force be with you.

all623

Everyone, many thanks for your diagnoses and suggestions. I appreciate everyone responding so quickly- great community and well worth the membership. Glad to hear I don't need to rush in to the mechanic and that it's not an expensive undertaking, especially when I have some other goodies in mind I have alloted to spend for on the car. Especially glad to hear it can be fixed without an engine drop too. After reading some posts today related to this topic I've decided to leave the engine cover off as it is reported to be useless except for sound deadening.

ppressle

I may be in the minority, but I would clean up the areas with some carb cleaner and rags (on a cool engine) and see how long it takes to come back.

BS911

You think you are in the minority? I haven't been that "dry" in at least 80,000 miles. If your consumption is still within limits and you aren't risking running low on oil because of those leaks... which I'd be willing to bet my left arm you aren't.... then you could always just leave it be. Granted, you might not be as tolerant of an oil leak as I am on a heavy duty daily driver like my 95, so that would be up to your personal preference. Either way, I doubt those leaks would ever cause any harm so I wouldn't put a lot of money into them.

The real bottom line is that a leak isn't a problem. Lack of oil would be the only problem. You would need a BIG leak to get low on oil at any noticeable rate.

all623

I haven't noticed any abnormal loss of oil. I cleaned the area, took the car out and ran it hard, then put cardboard underneath the problem areas and no drips yet. I will keep a watch on it. If you say it's not an issue, I would prefer to leave it alone for now. Money better spent on a suspension I would like to have soon. Appreciate the guidance on this.

geolab

The nut that you see tightening the corner on each side where oil leaked a bit, is composed of three parts.
The nut --- the large washer ---and a round rubber seal underneath (apart from the rubber seal surrounding the cover)

From what it looks on the picture, the leak is from the rubber rounded seal.
There are 18 on both sides, 10 you can access from under the car.
As it looks, you even don't have to change all of them, surely the lower tip ones where oil is visible
and one from each side of it.
Porsche part number is : 964 105 140 01 price 2 bucks

I cannot find the tightening torque measure on those but it should be minimus

TheOtherEric

Slow down guys. It's not clear that the leak is coming from the timing chain cover. Understand that the timing chain cover there is the rear-most part of the engine, and the bottom-most. So that's where oil is going to go if it's leaking from somewhere else. In fact, it looks like you have a trail of oil leading down to it. I'd say there's a decent chance it's somewhere else, like a cylinder thru-bolt. This is EXACTLY what happened to me. Oil pooled up in the identical location as yours, but when we put dye in the oil and ran the engine a while, we found that the oil was coming from a cylinder thru-bolt. It required an engine tear-down to fix.

Hopefully it IS just your timing chain cover, but you should investigate further before spending the $1500 to replace that gasket.

all623

Wow, I hope it's not that serious. I looked underneath carefully to see if anything is coming from above the damp area and it looked dry, but obviously I should look further. I will have the car up soon installing bypass pipes. Maybe I will be able to get a better view. Is there a way to view the area in question from the top (for cylinder thru-bolt leak) where should I be looking?

TheOtherEric

Yup, my engine looked pretty dry too, except for the timing chain cover gasket. I think the wind, heat, and gravity is why it looked dry everywhere. But very careful observation and the use of the dye found the true source. With the dye you could see a tiny trace of oil coming down the engine case (underneath) near the base of a cylinder. I doubt you'd see it from above. Again, I hope that's not your problem.