Fail Mot Oil Leak

My car recently failed MOT and i have since carried out extensive work.

2 x Front Brake Hoses
Drivers Side Suspension Arm
Rear Axle Bushes (with help from previous threads on here)
2 x Drop Links
Driveshaft Support Bearing

I took it back for retest but now it has developed a major oil leak.
Was only an advisory first time round.

I wondered if anyone can help or advise me. I dont think its the rocker cover gasket which seems a common problem as this was changed by previous owner not long ago.

It is coming from drivers side and there is a lot of oil on the underside of the plastic belt casing. There was also quite a bit on the sump but i think it was likey to be dripping from higher up.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

thats not extensive work, thats weekly maintenance lol

oil leak - i wouldnt trust the rocker gasket, the fact its been changed recently would make me more suspicious, id try a genuine ford gasket first, follow the guide on here

Welcome aboard :thumbs:

Firstly just because the gasket has been done before doesnt mean it isnt leaking now. A ford gasket is advised and it has to be done properly and torqued down properly.

Have you checked it isnt your power steering fluid thats leaking, there is a power steering pipe on the inside of the lower belt cover and they can get worn away if they arent secured and rub on the pulley.

It could also be the case your crankshaft oil seal is leaking, which is a cheap part but probably about 3-4 hours labour and would be best done at the same time as a cambelt change really. Or your oil filter or crancase breather pipe or valve or sump gasket might be leaking.A gunking and engine steam clean might be a good idea to see where its coming from. But given your comments about it dripping off the belt cover I would say its either power steering fluid or cranshaft oil seal.

I have a similar oil leak on the drivers side and purchased a Ford rocker cover gasket for £28 and had it fitted at a garage and we still have the oil leak, some people have said it might be the crank shaft oil seal, but who knows. Project Elder said its about 3 hour job to have the crank seal done, so not cheap, although the seal itself is only £6 from a Ford dealer. Oil leaks are just so bloody annoying!

project elder lol
Quest63 more like :grin:

omg im a n00b lol

That's nothing whatabout the guy who goes by the name of admin, thinks he owns the place

as said above I would not trust the rocker cover gasket! those pesky things!!

you elders, stop being so elderly!!! :-D

We elders hardly have time for the whole Puma thing what with trimming our long grey beards and err errr.....errr some other stuff which we forgot about due to being elderly

Hi again and thanks for the welcome, i shoud have introduced myself really.
Ive got a 1.7 1998 in silver.
Bought it cheap knowing it was an mot failure a few months back and had the failure sheet to work off.
Low and behold i take it for an mot having done mentioned failures and new garage = new and more failures .
Really cant wait to drive it and get last few jobs finished off, thanks for the heads up on rocker gasket guide and cleaning engine.
I steamed it off and wiped as best i could and the ran engine warm, leak seemed to be coming from top left corner looking from front and dripping from there - down the block and running down rear of cambelt casing and onto everything below it before hitting floor, im hoping it was just 'looks worse than it is'.
Ive since bought and changed gasket but havent tried it yet as my oil level is very low.
I have two questions if anyone would kindly help

1 - what engine oil do i need for 1.7 puma

2 - does anyone know what brake line clips are called / part no or where i can get them from. Or even a permenant alternative. Reason being another failure was brake lines not supported from front to rear. There was three in total, all now broken and worn away. It looks as though they spin onto threaded studs underneath the car and the brake lines fit into the grooves with a clip that goes over the top and holds them all in place. Hope this makes sense and that someone can help .

Thanks

5w 30 semi synthetic will do it

Thanks for help with oil.
Anyone got any ideas what I mean by the brake line clips?...

I think Fords will be your best bet

by heck, that looks clean!!

Picture courtesy of YOG iirc, and yes I'm jealous as well :grin:

Definitely sounds like the rocker cover gasket! Most of us, including me have had problems with it. I made the mistake of buying a non-genuine rocker cover gasket the first time and despite stripping it down and rebuilding it with sealer three times I couldn't get it to seal properly. So I bit the bullet and bought a genuine Ford gasket for about £30 off the net. Fitted it with NO SEALER, torqued the rocker cover bolts to 10nm and I've not had a leak since!

Have you had your timing belt replayed recently? The reason I ask is that there is a locating pin cover that is on the driver side of the engine, at the back of the block. If this hasn't been replaced or has come loose and dropped out, when the engine is running it will spray oil onto the driverside drive shaft. When the car is moving, the spinning driveshaft will spray that oil all over the place, it will make a right mess of the back of the engine and bulk head! You'll have lots of oil dripping from all over the place, but it's worth checking it too, just in case.

Hope you sort it soon as there's nothing worse than an oil leak - unless you drive a classic mini or a Mecedes and then you'll be used to it!

Sorry not got back, yes the rocker gasket was the culprit in the end.
Cleaned it up and now have 12 months MOT - no advisories.

Only thing troubling me now is that i pulled the dipstick out when car was running and smoke seemed to chug out .

o yes and fact one headlight is really faded until its wet and then looks like new, any ideas?

Some people seem to have had some success rubbing headlights and foglights down with wet and dry paper of different grades and then polishing

Moskito repelent for faded headlight plastics apparently....