What causes oil leaks?

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This is my sisters 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara 2.5L V6 with 46,000km. It's been religiously serviced by the dealer every 10,000km. But since her warranty ran out, she asked me to service it. It has used Shell Helix Ultra 15w50 & 5w40 all its life. I noticed oil leaking from the valve covers. What causes oil leaks? Is it the low quality oil? Or is it the extended oil change? (she sometimes goes 12 months between oil changes). Or do the valve covers just need tightening? Will changing oil to say, Castrol SLX 0w30, stop the oil leak? Or do the gaskets just need changing? Or is this considered normal? Im not really prepared to change the gaskets bcos that would involve removing the intake manifold.

Some pics:
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quote:

Originally posted by Ken4:
This is my sisters 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara 2.5L V6 with 46,000km. It's been religiously serviced by the dealer every 10,000km. But since her warranty ran out, she asked me to service it. It has used Shell Helix Ultra 15w50 & 5w40 all its life. I noticed oil leaking from the valve covers. What causes oil leaks? Is it the low quality oil? Or is it the extended oil change? (she sometimes goes 12 months between oil changes). Or do the valve covers just need tightening?......

Ken4, Grand Vitara and XL-7 Big-Size Suzuki truck with Suzuki v-6 engine all leak from top end area. Nothing you do is likely to change the leak situation, so just grin and bear it. It does not affect the functionality of these excellent Suzuki trucks. You will not see the oil level on the dipstick go down any as a result of these minor leaks.

If you want a non-leaky Suzuki truck, sell your v-6 and find a Samurai or Sidekick from 1989 or 1997 in the classified ad's. The 4-bangers rarely have a leaker among them.
 
Thanks. Im glad to hear it's normal for this truck. Must be some really lousy gasket material they use.
 
Ken4, All seals degrade with age so all will eventualy leak. Usualy it is a combination of cheap materials and poor design that causes early seal failure. Over the course of a vechiles life hardening of seals, third party abrasives, dry rotting and mechanical failure like a tear is what does them in in the long hual. Looking at your leak the gasket apears to be made from cork wich is a very cheap and poor seal material. Cork is like one steep above leather! Useing a quality viton,nitrile or silicone seal would solve this.

If theyredesigned the componets to have a lip on the outside and a groved o-ring on the inside you would end up with a almost leak proof design.

See if they have a better seal now at the OEM level or if Felpro makes a better one. IF not RTV in a cualking gun might make a better bead and seal for you!
 
First and simplist thing to do is tighten the bolts, that usually works for a while. If leaking I don't bother with the torque requirements on these as they are pretty minimal IMO, I tighten them pretty well without stripping them and it works, if not, they are leaking anyway so it makes no difference. Only a new gasket will solve the problem at that point.
 
Ken, that's a leak? All I see is some "sweating" around the valve cover. Perfectly normal and something a good "engine wash" can get off. You're not getting dripping on the driveway from this right?

And, a thinner oil eg. 0-30 would most likely increase the leakage/seepage. I would agree that it's probably from the high oil change intervals used.

Great to see you're using these viscosities as I was criticized for using a 50 weight in my girlfriend's Suzuki 1.6L.
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Yes, it is dripping. Image taken from below the vehicle:

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To tighten the valve cover, I also need to remove the intake manifold. Which I really dont want to do esp when I dont have the repair manual.

What about oils high in esters? Does that make gaskets swell? Or is it only for seals?
 
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Since I'm in a funny mood tonight and cracking jokes all over the place....
This is absolutely true and they still laugh about it at the service station:
My Mom: "My car is leaking oil."
Mechanic: "Where?"
Mom: "Everywhere I park it."
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quote:

Originally posted by JohnBrowning:
*-*-*-*-* the gasket apears to be made from cork wich is a very cheap and poor seal material. Cork is like one steep above leather! Useing a quality viton,nitrile or silicone seal would solve this.
-*-*-*


Say, I liked the old Toyota Cork SEALS. Them things never leaked, and they never came off, period, not even with a chizel. Would trade ALL my seals for the older ones... mine have all leaked PREMO.
Now John, if you know something about a VITON GASKET maker I can get that would be better than Toyota stuff, let me know.
 
One of the worst things you can do with oil leaks is to over tighten the bolts. That distorts the cover and it will never seal even with good new gaskets. You can try snugging up the ones you can reach, but take it easy.

Anybody have any luck with oil stop leak? I think I finally stopped an oil leak on my 77 truck this year by replacing one of the original emissions hoses.
 
I am going to show how young I am here but I never owned or worked on a Toyota that had a cork seal!! The oldest Toyota I have personely worked on to the best of my memory is 1982. I am sure I helped(got in his way and asked too many question) my Dad as a little kid but do not remember it. I do remember helping friends and neighbors work on their Domestic brands with them as a teen ager. It was kind of hard to hide that I was a skilled traid aprentice walking home from the bas stop in my bright blue bibes overalls and my funy hat! I once got a cork gasket in a non-oem timeing cahin and cover set for a Toyota. I just threw it away and used RTV.

I laughed at the idea of useing cork as a gasket material. It reminded me of storys my Grandfather would tell of reuseing old shoe leather to replace the rear main seal on car dureing the depression.
 
I dont recall if the suzuki 2.5/2.7 is entirely aluminum (block + heads), but it seems the "V" block all aluminum engines are prone to this type of oil weeping after a few years of service. All that expansion & contraction of the aluminum going on makes it tough to keep the mating surfaces sealed tight all the time. Like Dr.T says, an occational engine bay washing will keep it looking clean all the time. I'd track the source of that drip a bit closer & maybe try an auto-rx treatment before any invasive surgery.
G/luck
Joel
 
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