oil filler neck oil leak

[whc03grady]

Okay, give it to me straight: this particular oil leak isn't fixable engine-in, right?



I didn't think so.

[Amskeptic]

Okay, give it to me straight: this particular oil leak isn't fixable engine-in, right?
I didn't think so.

Help us out here a bit . . . is this the Type 4 engine? The Type 3 engine photographs very similarly up this close but for that cable which has me all disoriented. We are in a technical forum here that requires that you identify the vehicle so we don't confuse our vast . . . coughcough . . . readership.

Yes, it is repairable in the car. Think fluidly and positively. If it seems too tight a spot, it takes only minutes to loosen the engine mount 14mm nuts and jack the engine a bit to help clear the carrier so you can do a clean gasket replacement with Permatex Aviation please. The 13mm nuts will punish you if you negatively choose to round off their edges.

Do not preemptively don't think so . . .
Colin

[whc03grady]

Help us out here a bit . . . is this the Type 4 engine? The Type 3 engine photographs very similarly up this close but for that cable which has me all disoriented. We are in a technical forum here that requires that you identify the vehicle so we don't confuse our vast . . . coughcough . . . readership.

Yes, it is repairable in the car. Think fluidly and positively. If it seems too tight a spot, it takes only minutes to loosen the engine mount 14mm nuts and jack the engine a bit to help clear the carrier so you can do a clean gasket replacement with Permatex Aviation please. The 13mm nuts will punish you if you negatively choose to round off their edges.

Sorry, it is a Type 4 engine. That cable is the coughcough thermostat cable.

Do not preemptively don't think so . . .
Colin

It's my nature. It's a wonder I ever left the womb.

[Amskeptic]

It's my nature. It's a wonder I ever left the womb.

I have days like that. The cable is making no sense to me. It is supposed to be higher than that, coming around a pulley in a different plane than I have interpreted this picture.
Ah well.
ColinOldAge

[whc03grady]

The cable is making no sense to me.

I should've expounded on my coughing. The cable likely makes no sense to you because its nether end isn't attached to anything; specifically, it is not attached to a thermostat, given that all my thermostats are in the garage and broken.

[dtrumbo]

Yes you can. I did. It's not easy. It seems nothing worthwhile is. Remove the upper part of the oil filler cap assembly. Vise grips squeezing the clamp ring helps a lot. Then remove the foam seal enough so you can remove the piece of tin that goes around the lower part of the oil filler tube. With all of that out of the way it gets easier. While you're at it replace the dipstick boot. It looks like this...

[Bleyseng]

yes, it fixable in the car. Usually its leaking somewhere else thou and it just looks like it there. As Dick says pull and seal everything in that area at the time you do the work. That way if it still is leaking or appears to be leaking you know its not that those that you just sealed.
God Da*m fan blows oil everywhere so when there is a leak its tough to fix or locate.

[whc03grady]

yes, it fixable in the car. Usually its leaking somewhere else thou and it just looks like it there. As Dick says pull and seal everything in that area at the time you do the work. That way if it still is leaking or appears to be leaking you know its not that those that you just sealed.
God Da*m fan blows oil everywhere so when there is a leak its tough to fix or locate.

I'm pretty certain it is leaking at the underside of the filler neck/case interface because I very closely inspected it when I changed the oil and there's no oil or oiliness above it. Also, the engine is pretty damn clean otherwise.

There also appears to be a smaller leak where the oil filter whaddayacallit, mouting? the thing the oil filter screws onto? where THAT thing mates to the case.

Neither of these leaks seem very big (though I don't like oil leaks and will be fixing them when I can; "VWs don't leak oil, they just mark their spot" my arse) and have only managed to contaminate their immediate surroundings.

[Amskeptic]

There also appears to be a smaller leak where the oil filter whaddayacallit, mouting? the thing the oil filter screws onto? where THAT thing mates to the case.

The BobD has that very issue. It is a little skinny paper gasket with big holes dealing with high pressure oil. I clean it every two days when I am driving the BobD, so mortified am I that it leaks.
Colin

[dtrumbo]

Others may howl in dissent, but I have had FANTASTIC luck with no oil leaks on my newly rebuilt engine by the simple fact that I used Permatex Aviation sealant on all of the little skinny paper gaskets Colin mentioned. In fact I'm pretty sure there's almost as much Permatex in that engine as there is metal. The only place my engine leaks (leak is really too strong of a word) is the plate that holds the oil strainer... where I did NOT use any type of sealant.

[Amskeptic]

Others may howl in dissent, but I have had FANTASTIC luck with no oil leaks on my newly rebuilt engine by the simple fact that I used Permatex Aviation sealant on all of the little skinny paper gaskets Colin mentioned. In fact I'm pretty sure there's almost as much Permatex in that engine as there is metal. The only place my engine leaks (leak is really too strong of a word) is the plate that holds the oil strainer... where I did NOT use any type of sealant.

I am a big fan of Permatex Aviation . . . alas, I was not there on the engine assembly line that fine day in May of 1979 when the BobD was built.
Colin