oil leak from front of engine, oil pump?

Nate S · Post by **Nate S** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:19 pm

Ok,
so a few days ago I decide that my turbo wagon should get a tune up, so I change plugs / wires/ filters/ atf and oil. So the next day we head up to the mountains for our weekly snowboarding trip and when we get there and park there is CLOUDS of oil smoke comming off the exhaust. So I poke around and check fluid levels etc , find that it can wait till I get home to mess with. When I got home I proceded to check the filter , drain plug etc, replaced the filter just in case ( I have had a problem with some filters on my wrx just NOT sealing for some reason ) and I still seem to have some oil seeping down from under the timing belt covers. So I have searched a bit and found that it is possible that the oil pump could be loose, or the front seal is leaking, or both. So my questions is this, how hard is it to change the seal, is this a pull the engine sort of deal or something I can do with the engine in place? is there anything else I should look out for when doing this, tips etc. I am mechanically capable of doing this so that is not an issue. I wanted to check with the knowledge on the board before doing it.

thanks,
Nate

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:54 pm

If you at it think about:

New oil pump
New water pump
New Timing belt
New timing tensioner
New seals (3)
New drive belts
New Thermostat
New hoses

When you replace the seals around the crank and such you have to take the above items apart anyways, so its best to do it all at once. Using subaruparts.com you can get all the parts for fairly low cost and then have piece of mind knowing that basically the whole front of your engine is new.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... did=297049

Nate S · Post by **Nate S** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:58 pm

Yea I figured I would change all that anyway, my friend owns a machine shop so I get all my parts through him at cost ( which helps at times like this ) . are there any special things I need to know about replacing the front seals?

thanks,
Nate

Nate S · Post by **Nate S** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 12:46 am

ok, so I am getting differing info on this, does anyone know if the water pump is different from the non turbo and turbo ej 22 ?

thanks,
Nate

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 1:04 am

Different YES

They arent different in function but the turbo has an extra nipple on the elbow and the mount surface is 90 degree tilted for the thermo.

I bet you could use the turbo pump on an NA though

legacy92ej22t · Post by **legacy92ej22t** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:20 am

i have same problem,saving money to do job.may as well put in new cam seals while you are at it.i think mine is leaking from cam seals actualy,but just went through this ordeal with my 98 forester S,it was the crank seal on that though.seams to be a weak point,do many of you others have or have had this problem?the seals are cheap,usually under 10$us,but if you do it its a pain in the @$$,but if you have a shop do it you'll pay high labor. but no you do not have to pull engine,get a chilson or haynes repair manual.i have the haynes manual and its pretty straight forward.hope this helps

oh ya and if you have a shop do it its always a good idea to ask for your old parts back,before they do the work,that way you can be sure about the work and have old parts just in case

Nate S · Post by **Nate S** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:23 am

yea I am gonna do it myself,
got the parts on my workbench, all the seals, timing belt etc while I am at it.

will be a fun weekend

Nate

vypa · Post by **vypa** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 2:07 am

yea my cranks seals and cam seals are leaking oil also... must be a weak point of this car like u said...

scoobiedoo22 · Post by **scoobiedoo22** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 6:06 am

Subaru supposidly has upgraded their cam and crank seals to a better quality/more ware resistant material. The old seals were black and the newer ones that you can get from the dealerships are more of an off-brown color(new material). Replaced mine and have had no problems but they don't have 100,000 miles on them like the old ones. The engine doesn't have to be pulled to change the seals either, easily done while replacing the timing belt, just a few more steps.

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:32 am

Nate S: where at in northern california you live?

gt tankie · Post by **gt tankie** » Sun Apr 20, 2003 10:20 am

Hmmmm, a curly one
I had the sme problem. What colour is the fluid? For me it was p/steering fluid (red atf). This leaks thru the wires that come out the back of the p/steering pump (fluid sensor) and runs down and appears from behind the cam belt cover in a rather stealthy manner. Easy fix, replace the sensor. Dime adozen at the wreckers.
hope it helps.

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oil leak from front of engine, oil pump?

oil leak from front of engine, oil pump?