Hi guys, Did a search but couldn't find anything. I cracked the leaks from the right hand side of the engine last year with the belt pulley seals, now it's time to sort the left hand side. When I drive the car I get oil on the left hand CV joint and boot. I figured it was leaking from the small cam blanking plate as there was always some oil underneath it after a drive. I resealed it with RTV and figured I might have sorted it but no luck. The point is that I don't know if the oil is coming from the top end and dripping down onto the CV joint (then being spun around) or coming from the differential seal and and being spun around up. The cam covers were done properly just a few K miles ago and there are no leaks from them (but some oil from being spun off the CV joint). There's effectively oil in a radial spin pattern (red line) from the CV joint, but I'm not overly convinced the diff seals are leaking as whilst the drive output from the differential is greasy and dirty it's not wet through with oil. The oil is even getting thrown up through the engine louvers! Thinking more deeply about it, the oil can only get on the CV joint from the engine if it either drips or is sprayed onto it right ? of course I might have more than on source as it doesn't really explain how the rubber boot gets so oily which is dirrectly under the cam end cap. I figured as an investigation I will make up a small piece of plate and attached it as a drip tray under the end cap. This way it will differentiate between oil being drip down and oil being splashed up. Any thoughts about this one ? thanks Lee Image Unavailable, Please Login
It looks clean in there, my first guess would be the transmission fluid coming out the seal. Haven't gotten into that myself.
I've been here. I made a little curved bit that went around the CV - I called it a "heat shield," but who am I kidding? It kept the oil from getting flung all over by the CV. My oil leak was from the tranny into the CV and boot through the flange splines. The diluted CV grease was making it past the boot flange and flinging about. So is your flung substance just motor oil, or does it have a CV gease component? You should be able to tell by smell between tranny oil and motor oil and you should be able to tell by color if it is greasy. My CV grease was a very dark green color when diluted with tranny oil.
One of the great options you have is to use a product made by Tracerline. You put a few ounces of dye in the oil, run the engine for a few minutes, then look around the engine with a black light and yellow glasses. Leaks show up as a bright fluorescent green color. Their kit is incredibly effective in finding leaks. I have found that gaskets tend to absorb the dye even if they don't leak, so only look for actual drips. Great stuff. Their web page is http://www.tracerline.com/completeackits.html#TP8621 I have TP-1121, but any of their kits will work for you. I paid about $50 for the kit and have used it many times. I think you can find new kits on eBay, too. Let us know what you find. -Steve
Thanks guys. The flung oil seems clear and not smelly like tranny oil. I'll try the "heat sheild" approach as a diagnostic first and give everything a good de-greasing too. Lee
I too had an oil leak (small drops) and could not locate it. Finally I did. It came from the lower oil cooler fitting. It was hard to find, as cooler is covered by a plastic air diffuser. Hope it helps.
Thanks, you can see the fitting easily on the GT4 cooler and is all looks ok - new pipes last year. Lee
ok, I cleaned it all up and went out for a drive. You can see from the picture that the oil has started to seep out of the flange seal in lines and "up" the taper of the flange. I stopped a few times to note its progress so I conclude that it is the drive flange seal. The rest of the CV joint is now dry and I have resealed the cam end cover with HondaBond which has done the trick. I tried to search for a thread on the flange seal, but couldn't find any. So has anyone done this job and/or know of a write-up ? I figure the difficult part is removing the drive bolts but I have an impact wrench and then the bolt which holds the drive flange to the differential. I guess I remove the seal by removing the differential side cover (held on with the 6 nuts) - any surprises to know about there ? e.g. bearing pre load as there appears to be shimming of 2.2 - 2.4mm ? thanks. Lee Image Unavailable, Please Login
Don't undo the six nuts. Remove the CV joint, remove the bolt in the center of the flange, remove the flange. You can pry out the seal and press in the new one. Clean the splines, seal with RTV on reassembly to keep tranny juice out of the CV joint.\ I've done this and posted a bunch of pictures of what it all looks like when it is apart, but it is straight forward.
Thanks, I was concerned about removing the cover as it looked complicated behind there and I didn't want to disturb the diff bearings. I guess the seal is the same principle as the crank pulley seal which I did last year (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248319) Lee
Just a question though. With only one side of the car jacked up can I still turn the axle to get at all the nuts ? reason I say is that don't I have a LSD and don't these err limit the rotation ? it doesn't seem loose like a regular diff. OR do I have to get both rear wheels off the floor ? thanks Lee
Another question guys. My 8m hex tools arrived today and I just removed one bolt to see how hard they were, so the job is under way. However, I noticed both end and axial play on the inner CV joint as still bolted to the drive flange - i.e. play of the differential output shaft bearing (probably). I though uh-oh so I tried wobbling the belts side CV joint and it felt pretty much the same play in-out and some wobble detectable. Is this normal ? I hope so ... thanks Lee
