Oil Leaking on cambelt

DannyW · 2 Aug 2013 at 17:56

Hi guys

Ive just bought a cheap car and noticed oil Is leaking quite a bit onto the cambelt

Is this bad? Will the oil rot the rubber and cause premature failure of the belt?

Or.. are cambelts oil resistant??

Thanks

GeX · 2 Aug 2013 at 17:57

It's bad, for the belt and tensioner bearings.

Dogbreath · 2 Aug 2013 at 18:27

Oil on a timing belt is bad news. It will rot out the rubber and cause it to slip more easily.

Oil leak will probably be from either crank or cam oil seals.

DannyW · 2 Aug 2013 at 18:30

Its spraying like a very fine jet from a cam oil seal but ive heard the VVT is there too and tricky to work on

Third Opinion · 2 Aug 2013 at 21:42

If it is a cheap car it might be worth trying one of those oil treatments by Wynn's etc.

Sometimes they car revitalise the seal and create a seal that will last many thousands of miles.

I have had a 50/50 success with them in the past with the oil seals on older VW's which were prone to perishing allowing oil into the distributor.

LizardKing · 2 Aug 2013 at 22:07

Oil on the cambelt is very bad. Thats going to need sorting out rather soon!
The rubber will perish a lot quicker than you may think

sigma · 2 Aug 2013 at 22:11

Perfectly fine!

Nightglow · 2 Aug 2013 at 22:20

sigma said:
Perfectly fine!

Getting oil on the cambelt, is the quickest way to it's early demise.

Better to replace the seal, than bodge it.

sigma · 2 Aug 2013 at 22:22

Nightglow said:
Getting oil on the cambelt, is the quickest way to it's early demise.

Better to sell it on ebay with "doesn't use any oil" written in bold.

DannyW · 4 Aug 2013 at 19:29

Sold it to my mate who's a mechanic, he's going to strip it down when he's got time