All three of our 850s had some oil under the cover, the '95 855, quite a bit. The cars were purchased 6 months apart.

I cleaned all the oil under the cover of the "95, even using Q-tips and some kerosene. It never came back.

I cleaned the other two after purchase, and never had any problems,

I always put a little bib around the oil filler whenever I added oil, and I looked at the area around the filler after an oil change.

On one car I put a scrunchee (ask your wife) around the filler, but did not catch any oil.

I did check the gaskets frequently, and on one car, I had to carefully bend the ears on the cap to get a seal that felt as tight as the other two.

I put never sieze on the screws that hold the cover on after I had trouble with one.

We still have the '95 854 - 11 years, 120k (168k total) and the '96 855R - 10-1/2 years, 110k (165k total)
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'96 855R,'64 PV544 driver, '67 P1800 basket case, '95 855, '95 854, the first three are mine, heh, heh, 485,000 miles put on 9 bricks

Finding oil with the plugs is not a big deal in most cases. It can happen because of an old, stiff oil filler cap seal. Some times when filling the oil a little oil will spill around the cap, also no big deal. The oil should be black because of the contaminates absorbed and partial evaporation of the hydrocarbons.

While you are replacing the filler cap seal, check the cam seals on the driver's side of the engine for oil leaks. When the crank case pressure gets too high, it will force a cam seal to dislodge. Easy to put in a new seal, not so easy to clean out the PCV.

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My name is Klaus and I am a V ♂ lv ♂ holic