Nasty oil leak..

[Kneel]

Hello,
Earlier this year I took my car into a garage to do the belts. At the time it had an oil leak, when they had the engine apart they could see it was a cam seal that had split so they replaced that for me too as it would be easier to do it with the engine already apart.

The engine had a tapping noise that I think is/wasthe de-phaser pulley, however the garage told me it sounded more like the lifters? I dont know much about engines so I took it as its the lifters and didn't ask about the dephaser being changed. Anyway, with the seal replaced the leak seemed to have gone and I was quite happy with the car.

Last week i noticed that the oil leak has come back, and its a lot worse. I have had it into my local garage who has said it is coming from the cam area near the belts so he has recommended I take it back to the garage who did the belts.

I will do this as soon as I can get hold of them, however I just want to know if the tapping was the dephaser and its has now completely let go, what damage would it cause and could it be the cause of this oil leak?

 

[sideways danny]

i'm going to say they've fitted the incorrect seal to the dephaser. As i've said before, on several thread, the lifters in these engines dont fail (one guess who it was told you it was that)

If the incorrect seal has been fitted, the dephaser will be starved of oil and will be ruined if run like that for a long time

 

[Gray]

Would this be a "performance oriented" garage in the North West of England?

 

[Tony Hunter]

I see what you did there

 

[SBV116]

I am actually lost for word's if it's who i think it is! Renault must be rubbing there hands together shifting all these lifter's!!

 

[Kneel]

I wont say who it is as tbh I want to give them a chance to fix it if it is a mistake that they have made, and if its genuinely no fault of theres then its highly unfair to cause risk to their reputation and business.

If its the dephaser thats let go this could be the cause of the oil leak? If the dephaser was the cause of the noise when I went in (approx 6 months ago), and the noise was bad enough that it could be mis-diagnosed as the lifters would this mean the dephaser was close enough to letting go already at the time, and it was going to happen soon regardless?

The cam seal was ordered from renault so I assume it was the correct seal but again I could be wrong. Could a knackered dephaser cause the seal to split if it was the correct seal fitted?

Apologies for all the questions but I paid £500+ for all the work that was done, and I want to make sure 100% I dont have to pay any more money for this if its something that the garage may have done wrong.

 

[Fred@BTM]

you can only buy the seal as part of a kit from renault, cira £30 for it

i once used a non genuine one and it leaked, lesson learnt by me

 

[Kneel]

It was around the £20-25 mark I think and I'm 99% sure it was purchased from Renault, whether it came as a kit or not I dont know as the garage ordered and fitted it.

 

[sideways danny]

you can only buy the seal as part of a kit from renault, cira £30 for it

i once used a non genuine one and it leaked, lesson learnt by me

you refering to the packets that come with 4 seals, 3 of the exhaust cam type, and one for the dephaser, or the kits that come with new nut and bolt for the cam pulleys?

 

[Fred@BTM]

on about the kit, has inlet and exhaust seal, dephaser cap/seal, dephaser bolt and exhaust nut

 

[Gray]

I see what you did there

 

[Kneel]

It has been back to NWPerformance for this to be looked at. Ryan charged me for a dephaser pulley and an hours labour then cracked on sorting the problem out. It was leaking from the cam seal again so that was changed and leak appears to have stopped now. Also the engine is still tapping after the dephaser has been changed so the lifters might be the cause of the tapping after all

 

[Damo_Sport]

It has been back to NWPerformance for this to be looked at. Ryan charged me for a dephaser pulley and an hours labour then cracked on sorting the problem out. It was leaking from the cam seal again so that was changed and leak appears to have stopped now. Also the engine is still tapping after the dephaser has been changed so the lifters might be the cause of the tapping after all

no offecence to nwp.. but isnt this the 2nd car now in a few months where its come out "tapping"

 

[Kneel]

in defence of NWP mine went in tapping to start with.