allffy

Hi all,

I hope you can help me before I bring by car to the Porsche dealer, they have a pretty bad name here and I dont want to be ripped off AGAIN. I asked a friend of mine to check out a slight oil leak on my c2s, he told me it is comming from the cam pullys, nothing major but it would be best to get it fixed. He said I'm better off getting someone with experiance to work on it rather than him as he wouldn't be a Porsche expert. I called Porsche and they told me that it is a big job, engine will need to be dropped. Thats €1,500 just to drop the engine and then the cost of fixing the leak on top of that which they cant give me a price on untill they dropp the engine.

What do you think?

Any advice would be great

Cheers

ppressle

Clean it and see where is it really coming from. If it is coming from the cam cover bolts, you might try replacing the external bolt seals on the cam covers. That is on my list, but the leak is so slow I haven't gotten to it yet.

The cam covers are low on the engine though, so sometimes it drips down from above in the engine.

allffy

Thanks ppressle,

Is the Porsche tech talking crap saying the engine needs to be dropped? My mate says it's deffo comming from the cam pullys

Black993

I think I remember people talking about doing it with the motor in, but its rare.

Try the rubber grommets first. They are cheap and easy to get to. I did mine and it stopped the leak.

mike993c2s

What area are you in? Unless you know your way around the 993's engine, see if you can bring it to a reputable independent Porsche shop to have someone look at it. Ask for a shop recommendation here on this forum. Otherwise, take a picture of the leak and I'm sure many others here can help you with it.

2nd993

came back from a week away and found about a 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of oil on my garage floor too. never had a leak before but.. this comes only a month after a complete service..

f* i know how you feel.

MR

allffy

I live in Ireland so there is not a whole lot of choice when it comes to people to work on the car.
The leak is not bad at all, more of a seep really, there is no oil on the ground under the car. My friend noticed it when he was looking over the car and mentioned it so I asked him to investigate. But now I know it's there it bugs the hell out of me.

I don't think it's worth dropping the engine just for that do you?

Peter B

If your leak is from the right hand side of the motor, looking forwards, and at the extreme rear of the engine, then its def. a motor drop.
However, I recently changed from Mobil back to Magnatec and (touch wood) all the drips and traces of oil misting have stopped. I'm now using the car as a daily driver and in two months have done the same mileage as the previous year and the oil seems to be staying in!

2nd993

hmm my drips look to be comming from the middle.. right behind the bumper/license plate.

black ice

Allffy, if it's your chain covers on back leaking you can definitely try changing the grommets on the bottom of each one. That might help some because if the grommets are leaking it's likely the lower ones that get soaked with oil. But you have the tray around the engine to get the covers off to change the gaskets completely. I don't know for sure if it requires an engine drop but I can tell you it's not easy. I looked really hard to try and do mine but decided it's better to wait til I have to do a clutch job.

A couple of other common leaks to look for would be lower valve covers (you'd find leaks on either side, but it can blow back and fool you into thinking it's the chain covers) and the rear main seal (which is at the front of the engine, go figure). If it's the RMS it can blow back but you probably wouldn't misdiagnose because most would be dripping along the middle of the engine along the bottom.

If you decide to take the screws out and change the grommets be sure not to overtorque the bolts when you put them back in - all that cover hardware is torqued to like 8 ft lbs or something.

Dave

2nd993

Allfy and all,

Don't want to hijack this thread but I'm into day 2 on an oil leak diagnosis. I could use help on a couple items. If its bad form to post similar items on someone elses thread let me know...

1) I need recommendation for someone we can trust for regular mechanical services in Burlingame CA

2) I had the car in for full service recently around 40K miles on it... 3 weeks later I had a lot of oil on the garage floor after a trip away for a week of no driving...

Dealership says the oil is leaking from 2 possibly 3 locations...
- The distributor seal?
- Left side valve cover?
- Possibly the chain case but per your note above they think it might be dripping down or blow back from the other two sources...

i got a price of approx $1400 for just taking care of the first two...
couple of questions... aside from finding the time to get someone else to look at it or doing it myself...

QUESTIONS
1) Is there anything else i want these guys to do while they're in there? i mean for almost $1500 to change what amounts to 2 seals i should be able to get some other items handled while they are in there..

2) Dave - can you clarify the orientation of the engine is the chain cover closer to the rear bumper or on the other side of the engine closer to the back seats/front of the car? its important to help me understand if its possible that valve cover oil is dripping down or blowing back and masking it appear to cover from the chain case.. i'm not clear on porsche lingo since the engine is in the back... where is the front of the engine :-)

3) is there really that much labor in just these first two items

4) are any of these parts touched during a major service w/ plugs etc. the cars been bullet proof until... i decided to go in there and have some service done... seems a little odd that now i've got some issues after having some strangers muck around in there.

cabrio993

I just had my timing chain gaskets and gromets replaced, with the engine in place. You'd have to remove the AC compressor and its bracket and the rear engine tin. Then both timing chain covers removed and gaskets replaced. Engine does not need to be dropped!

NP993

There is NO need to fix this. It's not even a leak, just weeping. If it starts dripping on the ground, then you might wish to fix it.

Either way, step one is to thoroughly clean the larger area of the leak and then drive the car, and investigate carefully to determine exactly where it's leaking. You don't drop the engine without determining with 100 percent certainty where the leak is!

travanx

For everyone dripping oil to the ground, is your engine tray on or off? I assume its off, but curious if the drip is enough when its on to get on the floor.

I just got my chain cover seals replaced and all the belts replaced and it cost me a total of $525. next are the valve covers once the covers are made, and the mechanic said the top is leaking as well. Just as well get rid of all the leaks. And on the same note, is there anything worth replacing while these things are getting worked on?

2nd993

for mine the tray is on.. not sure for allffy.

re:$525 the $1350 i was quoted (rounded up to 1500 in the earlier post) didn;t even involve the hain covers.. it was just for one valve cover and one "distributor seal" which i can't quite picture in my head.

how many hrs what hourly rate was used for that job?