I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Timing Cover Oil Leak
Hi all,
light oil “weep/leak” around the front left side of timing cover next to the water pump on a 2016 ND 2.0 on 43k, first noticed this around 41k and it doesn’t seem any worse.
Haven’t noticed it previously but I do see there was a thing in the US on the 2.0 CX-5s that had timing cover leaks, it almost seems as if its around that area, hardly much at all as shown in the pics as it’s not dripping down on the undertray or to the sump, and certainly not “pooling” but just wondering if anyone else has seen this?
Level on the dipstick isn’t dropping, maybe 2mm at most if I had to give something.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I’m planning a big road trip and I’m not sure I want to be in mid europe and have it start leaking big time.
Apologies the pictures aren’t great, it appears to be leaking from the timing cover just above the water pump, apparently this is common on skyactive 2.0?
I’ll grab some more pictures this week if anyone else has this issue, slightly annoying considering low milage and it gets serviced every 4-5k miles but hey ho, must of been wrong from factory, garage is looking at it friday and reckons they can re-seal it.
Please see picture of the front left of the cam cover on my 2019 ND. You can see a beige blob of what appears to be rubbery sealant which has oozed out of the joint between the cam cover and the cylinder head. This joint normally has a rubber gasket but it is obvious that at some point in the cars history there has been a leak that has required additional sealant. So, it’s not too unusual for the car to have slight leaks even early in their life. In your case I wouldn’t worry too much about it as it looks to be very minimal and would not necessarily get any worse
It actually isn’t in this case. LOADS of ND’s got that. In fact I must have spent hours of my life looking at ND engine pics, after I discovered the same thing, on google images, and saw shed loads with the same RTV blob thing.I reckon I’ve seen 20-30 vids where they show the ND engine bay and it’s on all of them. I recall being ‘scared’ when I first saw it, went and saw one in the dealer’s showroom, and that had it. Another brand new one was outside, and that had it too!
(Edit, out of boredom I just watched another four vids which show the engine bay (from ND1-3), and they too all have it!)
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know that it was a relatively common issue on the cam cover seal. My previous two NDs did not exhibit this and I did wonder why sealant had been used when a rubber gasket is fitted. Is this instead of the OEM rubber gasket/seal (which is a bit flimsy)? I have had cars (Hillman Imp), which used silicone RTV instead of gaskets in some areas.
With no exaggeration, I reckon between google images, youtube clips and physically seeing NDs, I’d say I’m on 50 easy, with zero NOT having it! I had a mental crusade over it, about 2 years back lol I even went to independent mechanics too lol
I just thought they’d put on too much RVT when it was built, but then I saw it on shed loads, I wondered if it was there for a reason. Once I saw it on a couple of brand new ones (I’m sure, off the top of my head I saw it on another new one too) I kind of rested easily
Well I did wonder and possibly worry as to why it was there. I did think that someone might have had the cam cover off (a worry) and wondered if they had used sealant instead of the rubber gasket (another worry)
I must have spent hours too with an LED torch right up and all round the ‘sandwich’ between the valve cover and the lower part seeing if there was any weeping or anything. Takes a lot for my mind to rest easily
The blob suggest excess sealant may have been used. I just hope that it doesn’t create the same situation as has happened on some Toyota GT86s where excess sealant got into and blocked the oil pump and knackered the engine
Hi mate I wouldn’t worry abvout the sealant, mines like that and even worse on the timing cover!
Don’t believe these have a gasket on the timing cover, only the rocker cover rubber, (similar to a k24).
I’m getting the leak looked at & potentially sorted on friday to reseal the cover, I’m planning on doing a few winter track days whilst its off season for Motocross so would rather have it sorted.
Also got about 4k miles of road trips planned for this & next year so definitely want it sorted, more just wanted to know if anyone else had similar.
There’s a service bulletin for the CX5’s up to 2013-2016 with the 2.0 Skyactive lump and the 2.5’s up to 2020 or something, there’s a few TSB’s on it out there
See extra pictures attached, its definitely coming from the timing cover.
Ah! Got you. You have to apply some sealant as well as the rubber gasket when replacing the cylinder head (camshaft cover?) as well. That explains a lot. Thanks.
Looks that way in the manual, a lot of the MX bikes are similar, sealant on/around the rocker cover rubber gasket, must be something to do with rubbers…
