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Valve stem oil leak



  182
Back sensor came on and taken the car to the garage to be told thats its a valve stem oil leak. comperssion is fine in all 4 cylinders but oil getting into the 4th cylinder. Upshot is that to fix, its c£600 as the head has to come off. Any pearls of wisdom or words to the wise on this. Car only done 60k. At present it has had an oil conditioner put into the system to re-elastocate the seals, however i suspect this is just a temporary win.! No smoke or miss-fire, care runs fine. Only just happened. How long will a treatment work before its requires mechanical input... not happy?????
 

Gavin.

ClioSport Club Member
My 1.2 has this issue, I see an odd cloud of smoke now and again. Mine is not worth fixing though, it just have to re-fill it with oil every 6-8 weeks or so. It's been like that for 2 years or so now.
 
  1.2 cilo
If it is leaking that bad then i dont think it will last long. if it is minor then it should be ok for a while however if it is leaking really badly WORD OF WARNING if you try and do a cheap fix now then you could cause more damage in the future, just think of where that oil is going, into the exhaust and then in turn on to the o2 sensors and not forgetting where the catalytic converter is placed!
i think you are going to have to bite the bullit here and get them changed soon sorry:(
 
  DON'T SEND ME PM'S!!
I smell bullshit

I've seen stem seals cause heavy oil consumption, but I doubt it's your problem.

Even if it does need doing, £600 is too cheap for the labour and parts to do the job properly (full cambelt kit, aux belt kit and head gasket set is ~£300-£350) so they are cutting corners somewhere or havn't researched the job.
 
  Cup In bits
Totally agree with Dan here Bu**s**t. Never heard of an oil conditioner before, all these oil additives are a myth, slick 50 etc etc. There's no substitute for a good quality oil or regular oil changes. Sounds like they are trying to make some ££'s on products before they go and take you over the barrel for your hard earned.

No smoke, misfire etc but yet they have diagnosed stem seals on a 60,000 mile engine, hhhhhmmm. Sounds like the only smoke here is what their blowing up your a**e.

Leave the car to idle for 20 second periods while cold and also hot giving it short sharp blips of the throttle while checking for blue smoke on rev up. If there is smoke then I might agree but only after a wet and dry compression test to try and pin point where the oil is entering the cylinder a little more. Unless you are having dramatic oil loss, I would wait for a belt service to come up and do it then.
 
  DON'T SEND ME PM'S!!
I saw one recently that was using a massive amount of oil. 2 litres in 500 miles. When I got it apart, 2 of the stem seals were loose, with the tension springs round them that hold the seal having popped off. The valve guides were also heavily worn on 8 valves.

I came to the conclusion to take it apart becuase of the oil consumption, and nothing to do with the second lambda sensor. You probably just need a new sensor
 
Interesting thread, soz for the thread jack, My 172 cup consumed 4ltrs of oil in 300 miles. Few guys pointed at the piston rings being worn, as oil was being blown out of the crack case breather and into the catch tank. Would this happen if its the stem seals?
 
  GTD, Lupo
On my old Mk2 Golf the valve stem seals had gone and it was normally a good sign they have when you get a lot of smoke after lifting off the accelerator. Would this be the same on most cars?
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Interesting thread, soz for the thread jack, My 172 cup consumed 4ltrs of oil in 300 miles. Few guys pointed at the piston rings being worn, as oil was being blown out of the crack case breather and into the catch tank. Would this happen if its the stem seals?

Thats rings not stem seals.

Do a leakdown test and you will hear all the air pissing out of your dipstick past the rings.
 
  Evo 5 RS
Interesting thread, soz for the thread jack, My 172 cup consumed 4ltrs of oil in 300 miles. Few guys pointed at the piston rings being worn, as oil was being blown out of the crack case breather and into the catch tank. Would this happen if its the stem seals?


As Chip says, also (as it was with my old F4R) knackered stem seals is normally a lot of blow back on the over run, so blue smoke on let off
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Rings can smoke on the overrun as well though mate, as when there is vacuum in the chamber it can suck the oil past the rings.

But the give away in sonnys case for it being the rings is that on the power stroke, massive quantities of combustion gas are pushing their way past the rings and into the crank case, which is then in turn exiting from his breather.

The good news is that when it gets re-ringed, it will be faster :)
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
worn valve guides can very easily cause the breather system to pressurise

Agreed and I wouldnt be surprised if there is an element of that in Sonnys case, but with the rate at which Sonnys sits there puffing combustion gasses out the breather if it was valve guides alone causing it then I would expect it to have dropped a valve by now given the abuse it gets on track as they would have to be properly loose in the guides for it to allow that much gas past.

Bottom line is, that engine needs to either come apart and be rebuilt fully which will involve both new guides and new rings as part of that, or he needs to cut his losses and bung in a complete secondhand one that is in better condition.
 
  182
Back sensor came on and taken the car to the garage to be told thats its a valve stem oil leak. comperssion is fine in all 4 cylinders but oil getting into the 4th cylinder. Upshot is that to fix, its c£600 as the head has to come off. Any pearls of wisdom or words to the wise on this. Car only done 60k. At present it has had an oil conditioner put into the system to re-elastocate the seals, however i suspect this is just a temporary win.! No smoke or miss-fire, care runs fine. Only just happened. How long will a treatment work before its requires mechanical input... not happy?????

I very much doub't a valve stem failure also! Can you see oil on top of the engine, to the left side? It might be a minor leak from a bolt or the solenoid and it could be getting down the plug hole making the mechanic think it's getting oil into the cylinder?

I would get a second opinion (if you hadn't considered that already after the advice from the experts in previous posts)
 


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