Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Oil Leak - Valve Cover Gasket?
Apr 26, 2013
So, when I bought my truck, it leaked oil.....bad. It goes through around 2-3 quarts a week. I needed a vehicle, this one was cheap, so...I run it. Every other day, I put half a tank of gas and a couple quarts of oil in it. It leaks on the passenger side, right above the starter. I figured it was the valve cover gasket, and planned on changing it today. I saw a post about the "typical" head gasket oil leak, which sound suspiciously like what mine is doing. I have no oil in the coolant,or vice-versa.....
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i have a 2003 f150 xlt 5.4 4x4 truck i change the valve gasket cuz of a leak since it was off i paint both covers but forgot the order os bolts theirs long and short bolts can some one show me a drawing or how the order of bolts go on the both sides
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so I have a 2azfe engine
So there's an oil leak coming from the valve cover gasket (just purchased vehicle dirt cheap with 220k)
found this
Notice all the oil sitting on top of the exhaust mani gasket
In the left(lower) part of the picture it appears to be scraped.
the gasket appears to be newer, I did NOT use a screw driver to remove the valve cover, which is what this appears to have been done..
Can this be sanded down then filled with jb weld, and then regasketed?
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I've got a coolant leak here (I wiped away some of it before taking the picture):
Close up
This is the only place I can find coolant leaking and it's running down all the way to the water pump:
When I wiped away from just below the valve cover gasket it flaked right off and it doesn't appear there is any oil mixed in. I changed the oil today and it didn't appear to have any coolant mixed in either.
The coolant doesn't appear to have any oil in it's nice and pink as it should be. I started the car from a cold start and sat and watched the area waiting for it to leak but nothing ever came out, of course.
I know there shouldn't be coolant leaking from this area anyways but I don't know how else to explain the trail pictured. I definitely have a small leak somewhere as I've found coolant on the floor of the garage before.
Do I just replace the valve cover gasket and move on or is there something else I should be concerned with here?
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I had a very slow oil leak that dripped onto the garage floor and i brought it into the dealership. They said it was a leaking left valve cover gasket; I searched and came up with nothing? The engine has just over 30K miles on it.
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I just noticed what appeared to be an oil leak around the valve cover gasket, which the VW dealer has determined to be a defective cam sensor. Apparently the VW parts distribution center in Wisconsin has 530 of these in stock, so it may be a common failure. This is on a 2010 GTI with 28,xxx miles. Thought the community would like to know.
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Looking for some insight into the state of the motor in a 2002 XD. Short story is that it appears to be leaking oil from the valve cover gasket (common, I know) and sometimes winds up running extremely low on oil before it gets changed. When draining the minimal oil in these conditions, non insignificant amounts of water can be found along with the drained oil.
Car is at 155k miles, has exhibited this behavior for more than a year, and has no noticeable knocking issues, power loss, mpg loss, heating/cooling issues, or any other ill effects other than apparently making a mess in the engine bay, on the ground where it parks, and scaring people when draining the oil.
Logically this is going to not be the case forever.... Thoughts? Prognosis? Treatment?
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I'm suspecting a small valve cover gasket leak. I've noticed dirt starting to accumulate near the alternator side of the front valve cover, there is dirt on there stuck to oil, I don't see any wet oil but its so minor the dirt just sticks to it. 107k miles here. Seems to be a common problem. I think Downhiller had a large oil leak, source unknown around his crank pulley area. You wouldn't think a car this young would leak oil. It's not bad, I havn't had to top any off I just like a mildly clean engine.
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I bought the little car to get off my motorcycle and its done great. But, after a couple trips around town my check engine light came on, and I imiditely noticed a change in my idle and engine performance. Im assuming my engine changed the air/fuel ratio to account for the sensor indications. My initial code read came back with four codes which said something about spark, and O2 sensor, and emissions. I went ahead put new spark plugs, gaped them as well as replaced the first O2 sensor.
After that I reconnected my battery and sure enough no engine light and my idle felt even better than before. (by the way my old plugs looked normal) But shortly down the road the light came on again. My idle did become a little different but not like my first encounter with the engine light. My power too seems a bit degraded, as well as the engine's sound. As of right now I am only reading one code P0422, which I do not see in the manual. I read online that its probably my catalytic converter or my engine is running at an improper air/fuel ratio. I am praying that it is not my catalytic converter and just my engine computer throwing things off.
Other things which may serve as clues:
Slight valve cover gasket leak (I will change the gasket when I do my timing belt job along with other seal and probably the water pump)
When pumping gas I can get about 90 cents in at a time, now more like 40 cents since the Saudis lowered our gas prices. Assuming I've got some kind of venting problem.
Car has 107K manual shift.
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My 2003' Explorer XLT (4.0L V6) has an oil leak. I tracked it down to the passenger side, rear, bolt head on the valve cover (back by firewall). I took it to a guy who replaced the valve cover gaskets, but it is still leaking. He claimed when he had the cover off he looked for any cracks on it, but did not see any at the time.
Anyways, I was searching around and found several explorers leaking in or around the same area of the valve cover. And it turned out that there issue stemmed from bad timing chain guides, causing the valve cover to crack.
I do notice that on a cold start, I hear a rattling when I first start it up. It rattles for maybe that first 1-2 seconds when starting. Is this my timing chain rattling around? If that is the case, how much this could set a guy back on repairs?
I guess I don't know whether to just replace the valve cover, or if I should dig into it to see if the real issue is the timing chain guides/tensioner. Mileage is approximately 121,000....
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My uncle has a 1997 Corolla that has been sitting on his garage for about 2 years. We jump started the car and after a while recharging the battery, we saw fumes coming out from the engine. I then noticed that there was oil all over the front of the engine.. From what I have found in google it seems that this is a valve cover leak. How serious can these be? Are they easy to fix? because my uncle is thinking on calling the junkyard.
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I have a 2003 ford ranger 2.3 vin d 5 speed, this truck originally... Took it in for wires plugs front brakes fuel filter battery and added a small cold air intake. We discovered a valve cover leak and while repairing guy drops a screw into a valve and when finished he started it lodged the screw between the valve, shearing off a cam sprocket bolt. Throwing the timing. 2 valves on the exhaust side were bent and replaced. no damage to the head.
Timing was reset and the truck was running. 2 days later truck is running/had a hint of exhaust smell then started bogging dying and shaking, at which time we got an 02 bank2 lean code and fixed that. it cleared code and didn't fix it. From there we replaced coil, imrc intake bc of a crack, tried and check all vacuum, reset the timing. Timing would slip before but no longer than 10 minutes every time truck started.
Found the hole in the timing cover that holds the bolt to torque? to harmonic balancer was broke. replaced along with the diamond washers and cam sprocket bolts. timing finally held crank sensor was adjusted. truck came home for one day running good, we had removed the cold air intake and replaced the factory air intake. next day it was so slow outta first gear, you must baby the throttle, if you floor It, it sputters and kinda pops, truck stays slow all the way to about 10 mph and 2000rpm then it begins grabbing speed, 3000rpm is where this truck shifts the best, 2nd is better, third better than that.
As rpm increase the truck runs better, it idles steady at 1100-1200rpm at stops with an audible miss and then struggles again on takeoff. Here what im wondering, the truck has an abs sensor that just came on, but no codes showing now.tomorrow I wil run matko determinator 3.0 on it. and test the catalytic converter. first how do I check the timing belt to see if it stretched? do these trucks store the p.i.d.s. koer or kams that could cause one, all, or any of this and if so do I have to have it flashed from ford or can you manually do this without a drive cycle test.
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I have a 98 F-150 which has a loud knocking at the passenger side valve cover. I am not a mechanic but thought it was a rocker arm knocking. I dropped some oil from the oil pan and did not see and metal shavings. I added some mystery oil but the knocking continued.Loaded the truck on a trailer and hauled to a mechanic to check for the problem. He said the oil ports are clogged and oil can not get to the cam shaft and the cam shaft bearings are probably causing the knocking. He said there is no way to fix this problem and I will have to replace the motor.
I called another mechanic and described what the other mechanic described. The 2nd mechanic said it would require a complete tear down of the motor and would be cheaper to replace the motor. I recently bought this truck just to use for hunting and around town since it already has 198k miles on it.
Is there any way to clean the gunk from the oil ports? The truck will still run but just has the loud knocking so I don't let it run for more that a couple minutes. I have been reading many opinions for sludge blocking the oil passages and am considering removing the valve cover gasket and filling with diesel and let sit for 24 hours then repeat then put in fresh oil and filter. Maybe this will clean the blocked passages.
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I purchased a 2003 VW Beetle Diesel and have compression leaking from the valve cover around the number 1 cylinder. It does not run or will barely run. Is this a common problem and what could cause this. i haven't tried anything yet.
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I have a 2013 FX4 with the 3.5 twin turbo engine. How to remove the right side valve cover to replace the gasket? I have loosened the perimeter bolts and was able to get it to move slightly but nothing more. I also removed the spark plugs thinking that they might be holding the tubes which are connected to the valve cover by round seals. I have not removed the seals since I was concerned that I might damage them. Do they need to come off? If so how do I do it? It's amazing how complicated this job is! Short of calling the dealer service, I have just about exhausted all my usual tech resources.
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when replacing valve cover gasket, using the cork based one. Do you use any gasket sealant or any kind of silicone or just put it in by its self.
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I'm looking at replacing the valve cover gaskets on my 02 f-250, it's a 7.3L.
Looking at them on line there are many different brands. What have you used on your 7.3L, and which has worked the best for you?
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So I'll be taking on a project to replace the valve cover gasket on my 2002 Camry V6. There's a bit of leakage through the gasket. And while I'm at it, I'll replace the spark plugs as well. I'm looking for a write up on this project. did a lot of searching but couldn't find anything.
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I have a 99 passat 2.8 v6, that closing on 200k miles, and its a car i'd really like to keep, lately i've had a few leaks coming from valve cover gasket, which i replaced, and now from the front drivers cam, and the rear passenger cam, the smell is terrible and the smoke is worse, i clean out the pcv but its still happening, i talked to a mechanic he says with that many miles i should just do the timing belt and get the seals done.
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How difficult is it to replace the valve cover gasket on a 2001 Santa Fe with a 2.7? Can I just do the 'front' valve cover? Are there any tutorials with plenty of pictures while doing this?
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My son-in-law came by tonight and showed me his ticket from his oil change at the dealer on his '08 Azera, 108k miles. Tech remarked that both valve cover gaskets AND the oil pan gasket were leaking. I've walked through his garage many times when my daughter has the car at work and I've never noticed any oil on the floor. Should have I seen any? I told dealer I would just drive it and monitor the oil level and any other signs of oil leakage. Since he bought the car with 101k miles and a fresh oil change ticket and never checked the level over the next 7k miles I don't think it's leaking bad.
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