Erm...well...leaking oil from around the cylinder head area...is it common for head gasket to fail on a mrk2 squareback.... any ideas would be big help its not loosing coolant or overheating... oil level int dropping either still good amount of it in the sump HELP!!

no performance loss it seems fine the only problem is simply a wee bit of oil leaking

Edited 5 May, 200818 yr by AJ-Mrk2

Common for oil to leak from the head & run down onto the alternator. It usually comes from the camshaft seal then runs out behind the plastic belt cover,past the head towards the alternator.

Its not good for the alternator to get oily.

May just be something you have to live with. Depends how bad it gets.

bumping because need more opinions and ideas

bump

need help

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not leaking rocker cover gasket is it?

Red Indian MK3's reply is probably the right one TBH.

They do tend to leak from the cam oil seal or the corner of the headgasket right above the alternator.

As the oil runs down the block and onto the alternator it gets sprayed/thrown out making the leak seem far worse than it actually is. A little bit of oil can go a long way!

Not too much to worry about, as long as it don't start really pissing out. A new head gasket and cam oil seal is the only answer if this happens.

I had the head gasket leak on my 1st polo same as yours and yes it had the classic leak onto the altenator. I ran it for months and even power washed the altenator at one point to prevent terminal damage.

Eventually I had a indie garage do the head gasket for 100pound 3 years back.. As long as you don't have the mayonnaise appearing at the oil filler cap or on the end of the dip stick which would be well more serious.

Hit the search engine and see how others have had similar leaks..

my white coupe s has been leaking from the corner of the hg for years but still runs a treat i just have to check the oil more often an give the alternator a blast with brake cleaner every now and then but mines not that bad

luke

mine leaked from the front corner and most of the polos I've looked at do to some extent

if its not leaking loads and the engine isnt using water then it can be prob be left for a while if you want to...although its not that hard to swap

i had a bread van and then a coupe s, had leaks from these spots:

1) distributer. replace the seal between it and the engine block for pennies.

2) PETROL PUMP. as i recall its on the back of the lump, on the right as you look at the car. I had oil dripping out the bottom of it, then falling on the back of the engine so i thought it was leaking out the head gasket. Think it cost £12 to get a new one, and its two nuts to replace so nice and easy.

**sorry i put oil filter before and i meant petrol pump, very common fault on them....**

Edited 9 May, 200818 yr by ben_reza

can you confirm what engine this oil leak is common on ?????

i have recently bought a mk3 1043 cc and the alternator is covered in oil , as is the whole underneath of the car

All most MK3's suffer from a leak just above the alternator and it looks serious but it is infact a very small leak, but to have a alternator coverd in oil means that it could be spraying out under pressure and could be a sign of another more serious problem.

I used some Oil Leak stopping stuff from halfords on mine and it worked a treat and hasnt leaked since.

They also have a habit of leaking around the rocker cover were it goes over the cam on both the belt and dizzy side.

Edited 1 September, 200818 yr by Cymro

cheers, well as the whole bottom of the car is covered its been leaking a while. shall wait til the haynes maual appears and goes from there

The camshaft seal leaks & runs down onto the alternator.

The crank seal may have gone getting oil onto the alternator & belts.

The gearbox drive flange seals are common, resulting in oil spread right under the car

I've had flange seals go

Indeed... oil EVERYWHERE and I didn't do anything about it and my gearbox ended up sounding like a straight cut box.

Of course after putting this up the inevitable happened the dreaded head gasket failure, when the job was last done they didn't skim it and seem to have just packed it with liquid gasket, It was leaking water into cylinder 1 and seems to have been there for a while. 3days later and I'm back on the road with a working car but suspect that the valve timing is possibly slightly off (about a tooth) or its just everything settling back in as the head was skimmed back by 15 thousandths to make sure it was perfect..

Edited 6 September, 200818 yr by Cymro

Erm...well...leaking oil from around the cylinder head area...is it common for head gasket to fail on a mrk2 squareback.... any ideas would be big help its not loosing coolant or overheating... oil level int dropping either still good amount of it in the sump HELP!!

no performance loss it seems fine the only problem is simply a wee bit of oil leaking

The leaks can be caused by back pressure in the engine due to the dome shaped oil separator on the back of the engine getting blocked after high miles, another symptom is the air filter getting dirty quickly. It is a real pain to remove and replace with the engine in the car. It can be boiled in Caustic soda to clean it. There is also a breather tube in the engine that this fits into which needs cleaning out. This tip & other useful Mk2 info from the 'bangernomics' web site.

RMB

very usefull info thanks to all involved