Boxster - where's all the oil from?

[heebeegeetee]

Out in the Boxster yesterday. Noticed a smell of oil. When I got home I slid a sheet of cardboard underneath it. Checked it this morning and there is oil all over cardboard, and looking under the car there is oil everywhere.

This don't seem no drip from a failed RMS to me, so does anyone have any idea of what's it likely to be?

Engine still seems to be as sweet as a nut though.

[peteman]

Had a really bad looking leak on mine last year, oil seemed to be everywhere but actually turned out to be coming from the camshaft tensioner bolt washer at the bottom of the engine. It would drip off the bolt onto the floor when idle but i can only assume the oil was being drawn higher up with the airflow at speed and dispersing it everywhere. wipe the area at the bolt and let the engine idle and if it is this little alloy washer then you will see it dripping which is not so bad as it should be a very cheap fix, my local indie didn't even charge me as he was already doing some work on the brakes. Local OPC wanted over £200 to do it.5 minute job apparently.

Edited by peteman on Tuesday 21st February 09:11

[SonnyM]

Could be dripping from cam cover. Mine was leaking from the factory and re-sealed under warranty at OPC with a little tube of glue.

[D900SP]

Oil not leaking when the engine is running but an oil leak with it stopped is one of the signs of IMS failure. Also engine rattles (but not always).

I would get it inspected and would not start the engine.

[heebeegeetee]

D900SP said:

Oil not leaking when the engine is running but an oil leak with it stopped is one of the signs of IMS failure. Also engine rattles (but not always).

I would get it inspected and would not start the engine.

This is the worry. Maybe I need to get the RMS, IMS bearing, clutch and a service all done at the same time. That'll be £2k though. Ouch.

[S1MMA]

Is it coming from front of engine, or back?

Could be FMS, or RMS, or something else. Get it checked out asap if I were you. it needs to be put on a ramp then it will most likely be obvious what the problem is.

[rhkumar]

If your engine is running fine I very much doubt IMS failure. Get it flatbedded to a specialist and get a real answer instead of lots of speculation. Roy

[peteman]

peteman said:

Had a really bad looking leak on mine last year, oil seemed to be everywhere but actually turned out to be coming from the timing chain tensioner bolt washer at the bottom of the engine. It would drip off the bolt onto the floor when idle but i can only assume the oil was being drawn higher up with the airflow at speed and dispersing it everywhere. wipe the area at the bolt and let the engine idle and if it is this little alloy washer then you will see it dripping which is not so bad as it should be a very cheap fix, my local indie didn't even charge me as he was already doing some work on the brakes. Local OPC wanted over £200 to do it.5 minute job apparently.

Before you go to the expense of getting it flat bedded just crawl underneath locate this bolt and washer and give it a wipe the run it on idle to see if it drips It'will only take a few minutes to check for this leak and believe me it can look quite serious after a drive and I have been told not that rare as the alloy washer corrodes with the steel bolt, eventually causing the leak.

[peteman]

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_T...

This is the large camshaft tensioner bolt I found was leaking on mine, Faliure of the crush washer. It is not just a straight forward undo and replace as this could affect the tensioner thats why I asked my local indie to do it.

Edited by peteman on Tuesday 21st February 08:53

[heebeegeetee]

peteman said:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_T...

This is the large camshaft tensioner bolt I found was leaking on mine, Faliure of the crush washer. It is not just a straight forward undo and replace as this could affect the tensioner thats why I asked my local indie to do it.

Edited by peteman on Tuesday 21st February 08:53

That's interesting - I guess the arrow in the pic should be pointing at the large bolt-head. I'm guessing that the amount of oil released would not come from a rear main.

[peteman]

Thats right, The large bolt to the left,you can see the whole assembly removed in the smaller picture, as previously mentioned, When I looked at mine underneath the oil must have got drawn up with the air flow and it was dispursed even at the top of the engine, but I looked from underneath while on idle after wiping the area and the drip from the sealing washer was obvious. Hope this is cause of yours as its a minor repair, and my leak was completely cured.

[masergs]

had a similar oil leak on my 2007 boxster about a year ago. it turned out to be a split plastic feeder pipe

[peteman]

My first thought was maybe a split the plastic breather pipe which runs across the top of the motor, again a relatively cheap fix, but it was not this.

[heebeegeetee]

peteman said:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_T...

This is the large camshaft tensioner bolt I found was leaking on mine, Faliure of the crush washer. It is not just a straight forward undo and replace as this could affect the tensioner thats why I asked my local indie to do it.

Hi, I'm struggling to find the article that this picture is part of. Can you provide a link (or is this pic from an article about a larger issue, such as full engine rebuild?)

Also, I believe I need hockey pucks to lift the car up on. Is this true and where's the best place for Boxster hockey pucks? Does JB Sports sell 'em?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Kurtcobain]

Could becam covers, tensioner seals, sump gasket.

[Kurtcobain]

peteman said:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_T...

This is the large camshaft tensioner bolt I found was leaking on mine, Faliure of the crush washer. It is not just a straight forward undo and replace as this could affect the tensioner thats why I asked my local indie to do it.

Edited by peteman on Tuesday 21st February 08:53

That is the cam chain tensioner not shaft.

And that is a straightforward swap, time up engine set to tdc, lock in place, crack off 36mm bolt remove and replace washer and re fit.. It is sprung loaded.

Edited by Kurtcobain on Saturday 25th February 10:15

[stichill99]

I had a leaking oil tensioner washer last tear and I was amazed at the oil that appeared on the garage floor but as poster said give bolt a wipe and you will see if it is leaking. As I like to service and repair car myself I would disagree with previous poster about locking engine. I had to make a tool(can be bought) to lock the camshafts in place aswell as lock the engine.You need to lever out plastic caps on end of camshafts and there is a slot in camshafts where you place locking tool. It is not just a £5 repair with a washer. New plastic caps and washer came to about £30 if I remember rightly. If you are going to do any work yourself may I recommend a cd workshop manual from fleabay,best £2.99 I have spent.

[996ttalot]

heebeegeetee said:

D900SP said:

Oil not leaking when the engine is running but an oil leak with it stopped is one of the signs of IMS failure. Also engine rattles (but not always).

I would get it inspected and would not start the engine.

This is the worry. Maybe I need to get the RMS, IMS bearing, clutch and a service all done at the same time. That'll be £2k though. Ouch.

Just in case it is all of the above, don't give someone £2k for that - they would be ripping you off. Clutch is £350 and the RMS/IMS only around 120 iirc, then add 5-6 hours labour top. Should be no more than £1k including VAT at most if that. Add minor or major service on top.

Mike at Sports and Classic is only a quick drive up the m6 from where you are.

[heebeegeetee]

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

First plan of attack is to get underneath the car, have a wipe-off (ooer) and see if I can identify where the leak is coming from. Second move will be to take out the oil filter cartridge and open it up to see if there is stuff in there that shouldn't be.

I've been giving serious thought to tackling the IMS issue though. I've spoken to Autofarm and Martin at PorscheTech and that's where I'm getting my £2k price from.

Tbh I could possibly tackle it myself - I have a small garage business nowadays and have the equipment to do so, but this is a job of a magnitude I'm not too comfortable with. I have 2 or 3 very useful friends who would assist, but I can see my car taking up space in my workshop for more than two days, especially if we hit some unforeseen snag, and I don't want my car getting in the way of running the business. I'm thinking I just need to work harder and pay someone who is very familiar with these cars to do the job.

I'd be interested to know about Mike at Sports and Classics though.

As regards financially justifying this job, I haven't paid for a warranty so have possibly saved myself £3-4k in the 3-4 years we've had the car. If the job costs £2k (or less) and I've removed the IMS danger, then I'll be happy.

I need to get the car on axle stands though, and would like to do so without causing any minor damage to the car hence my needing to know about hockey pucks.

[D900SP]

996ttalot said:

Just in case it is all of the above, don't give someone £2k for that - they would be ripping you off. Clutch is £350 and the RMS/IMS only around 120 iirc, then add 5-6 hours labour top. Should be no more than £1k including VAT at most if that. Add minor or major service on top.

Mike at Sports and Classic is only a quick drive up the m6 from where you are.

I still wouldn't start the engine unless I knew exactly where the leak was coming from.
One time a client with a 2003 Boxster S drove to the shop to show me the oil leak (no rattle) turned out to be IMS bearing failure. Luckily no real damage and the car was still (sort of, over on mileage, under on time, but original owner)under factory warranty (4 years 40K miles).

Also had a client that drove his Boxster across the street, oil leak AND rattle, IMS failure and bent valves.