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MG MGF Technical - Oil leak question from a mechanical virgin

On Thursday I took my F along to my local dealership for its 48,000 mile service.

The chap at the service desk informed me that the car has a slight oil leak at the timing cover (is that right?) It'll be £250 to put right.

A couple of months ago I went into a local motor factors to buy some parts for my ex-boyfriend's car (I never usually go such places - they're quite intimidating to a girly like me) and whilst I was waiting for the oleaginous creep behind the counter to serve me I got to looking at some of the products they had in stock.

If I remember rightly they had some kind of additive there which claimed to stop oil leaks. Just add it to your car's oil (even I can do that) and no more nasty leaks!

Does anyone know if such products work? Has anyone tried them? If I do use it will it cause other problems? (I don't want inadvertently bring about to an HGF.)
Tracy Stebbings

Tracy,

in some cases only the bolts of the camshaft cover plate came loose.

Had this at my old 96 made MGF.
Re-tighten with 9 to 10Nm.

Is it a VVC ?

Dieter
Dieter Koennecke

Sounds like (as Dieter says) a poorly fitting cam cover. This is quite commonplace and (unless you are loosing huge quantities of oil) not very serious. It certainly shouldn't cost you £250.00!!!

Hmmm, i can't remember if there is a gasket here (logic says that there should be, but i don't recall ever seeing one, i shall proceed on the assumption that there is one!) The most it should cost is the price of a new gasket, some top up oil and an hour's labour IMO.

SF
Scarlet Fever

It's a 1998 1.8i and it's not losing very much oil at all.
Tracy Stebbings

I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets much worse. Certainly I am always suspicious of these 'snake oil' treatments that proclaim to fix a variety of maladies. Mostly they seem to attempt to flout th elaws of nature, or at best they don't tell you about any detrimental side effects.
David


Hi Tracy,
if it is a minor leak tightening up as said in above threads will probably be the fix - but be more careful if the oil -leak is close to the cambelt(s) as this can in due time make the belt(s) slip and even break. And that is expensive !

Regards , Carl.
Carl

Thanks, gents, for your help and advice
Tracy Stebbings

Carl,
The cam belts have teeth to retain timing - slipping not a possibility.
An alternator belt may slip.

However, oil on any belt is not good in terms of material deterioration - possibly leading to failure.

Paul
Paul Lane

There is a gasket and it is of the reusable variety. If it is just the camshaft cover leaking very slightly the a quick tightening of the bolts should cure it. Try losening all the bolts slightly and re-tighten starting from the centre bolts and working to the outside. As Dieter says only a light torque is necessary. Its more important for the bolts to be tightened evenly. Even if the gasket is destroyed 250 pound is way too much.

I wouldn't use any oil treatments in my engine.

Spyros
Spyros Papageorghiou

Oh dear.... after nearly 40 years of licenced rallying , racing and enthusiast fiddling with almost everything on wheels I DO know that the cambelt has teeth... The thing is that the oil deter the rubber and one or several teeth can easily "bend over " and hence the slip. Usually it is the crancshaft pulley that does this to the belt, at least on some older VW/Audi 1.8L engines . Funny thing is that one has to inspect the belt very carefully to detect where this has happend as the teeth (althou slightly rounded at the teeth edge by the action ) tend to re-take the original shape !
Carl.
Carl

Carl,
Not trying to imply you were talking rubbish etc, and if I offended you I apologise. In my defence, talk of oil on belts and belts then slipping implied that the cause was oil would make the belt slip...

I agree absolutely with what you say about deterioration of the rubber teeth of a cam belt due to contamination with oil. I had an old MKIII Cortina that had 3 teeth worn/deteriorated by oil to the point where they slipped passing the crank pully (as you say, the smallest) and completely threw the timing out. The belt remained intact though, the exterior only had small linear split lines along its length at the point where the 3 teeth were worn away as a giveaway. It was real murder to find, as when you checked the engine, everything seemed ok - belt not broken, good spark at points, fuel pressure ok etc, etc. Only a timing check revealed things were far from correct!

Paul
Paul Lane


Hi Paul, Yes it is partly my bad english,one tend to learn the wrong phrases (as those on "Friday funnies " on the Elise BBS , very educational but maybee not the ones to use daily ! ) ;)

Regards , Carl.
Carl

This thread was discussed between 05/05/2002 and 06/05/2002

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