Hey folks -- I'm not a regular brickboard poster, and don't have the skills to do much work on my 1992 745. But I was hoping I could get some advice...

I have an oil leak that is significant but not severe right now -- maybe a quart every thousand miles of around-town driving. My mechanic, who I trust, says he's pretty sure it's a bad cam seal (we checked a bunch of hoses, etc.), and that his bet is that when the former owner got the last belt changed they didn't replace the seals. The thing is, my mechanic says that he thinks when I fix this that I should plan on replacing the belt and water pump as well, because the leak (visible on the water pump) indicates that there's probably oil in there and the labor to get at the seals would just have to be done all over again if the belt failed soon after because of oil damage. All told, replacing these things will set me back $750, which I don't have. And replacing just the seals will cost almost $500 just for the labor -- he says it's a day's job. Otherwise the car's in very good shape (ha).

The question is -- how long can I put this work off? The mechanic says it's fine to drive it until the leak is out of control or the belt fails, but doesn't recommend that I take it out of town (which I was planning to do soon). Does that make sense? Is there any way I can slow the leak down? Could I just keep pouring oil in for months? I wish I knew more about this stuff -- hope you guys don't mind advising a novice.

Thanks.

I'd recommend doing this job yourself too. It'll be unfamiliar loosening the alternator, steering pump, and ac so that you can get all their belts off, but not hard.

The faq will tell you this: the counter-hold tool (from ipd) for the crank shaft is worth it for this job. Makes loosening and torquing that bolt much easier.

Take this with a grain of salt (noob speaking): you can loosen the camshaft and intermediate shaft bolts if the timing belt is on using the counter-hold tool on the crankshaft. The t-belt keeps them from turning (duh). But when I went to tighten those 2 bolts, the belt would slip. I used a plastic tool with rubber loop that goes around something like an oil filter. With an assistant torquing and me holding we could tighten it. The reason for this may be the newer style t-belts that are circular teeth instead of square. If you do the job without the counter-hold the plastic tool with rubber loop is probably required. I've done the job with and without the counter-hold and it's worth the $35 or whatever.

[EDIT] And buy yourself some white-out to marking where stuff is before you remove the belt.

I don't even know where to start on that one. Probably first with a new mechanic. I, a rank amateur, could do that job ( new front seals, t-belt, tensioner,water pump seals) in about 4 hours, easy. With time left for a cold drink. The cost of parts are about $3 each for the cam and intermediate seals, $4 for the crank seal, $6.50 t-belt, $25 tensioner, $6 water pump gasket set, total parts around $50. Total labour should be a lot less than $500. A lot.
You shouldn't put it off too long.The worse thing it will do is that the oil will swell the rubber seal on the top of the water pump, and cause a major leak.

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Gary Gilliam Sumerduck VA, '94 940 na Regina 160k '86 240 190k

If money is an issue, an option might be to replace JUST the camshaft seal and timing belt. That would fix the leak and give you a belt that should last for a while. It's not the most economical way to do it long-term, but it should cost much less -- the belt replacement is simple, and the cam seal is the easiest and quickest one to get to.

I don't know of a way to slow the leak -- even if there is a way you'd probably have to get to the seal anyway, so it might as well be replaced.

By the way, if you want to develop your own repair skills, replacing the timing belt isn't a bad place to start; there's a detailed FAQ here that shows how.


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Daily drivers: '97 855, '88 244 Project: '87 765t