I had a checkup today at the dealer and they said that there's an oil leak behind the oil pump. This is on a 97 Outback Wagon with 99k miles. It's not serious, the last 3k miles, I lost less than a quart of oil.

 

I know that I could leave this be and just pay extra attention to the oil level, but how difficult would this be to fix on my own? I'm somewhat mechanical, but I've never worked on my car before - just oil changes etc.

 

Also, they said the valve covers were allowing oil to seep, but it was minor. What does this mean, and how difficult would this be to fix as well?

 

Thanks!

Reid

Valve covers are easy!

 

Oil pump is a bit more work, but you could do it in a day/weekend. It is essentially remove/replace labor of the timing belt and cam seal service. You need to remove timing bely, acc. belts, crank pulley, and then pull off the pump (if I remember correctly). You need to remove the pump, clean the mating surfaces, apply a sealant (ultra-gray), replace the o-ring in the pump, check the screws in the pump for tightness, and replace the pump. I don't know what the service interval is for your timing belt but if you decide to reseal the pump you might want to do the crank seal, cam seals, belts, water pump, thermostat, and check the idler pulleys while you're in there.

 

A good shop manual should walk you through all of it.

 

Take a look at the timing belt and oil/water pump info here (thanks to Josh).

 

-Heikki

This is not something you want to do yourself. Either have the dealer take care of it or find a good independent Subaru technician. When you do this make sure to replace the 4 cam seals, water pump, thermostat and timing belt at the same time. Of course inspect the idler bearings and tensioner while your in their.

 

With the vc gaskets be sure to replace the cam plugs, grommetts, and tube seals at the same time. In addition it wouldn't hurt to replace the ignition wires if they haven't been done within the last few years. Good luck.

Timing belt has already been done I know. Maybe I'll leave it alone. They wanted $400 to do it. No problems leaving this alone correct?

 

 

I may look into doing the valve covers if they're easy.

 

 

Thanks for the good replies,

Reid

Timing belt has already been done I know. Maybe I'll leave it alone. They wanted $400 to do it. No problems leaving this alone correct?

 

I may look into doing the valve covers if they're easy.

 

Thanks for the good replies,

Reid

 

If it's not leaking too bad, oil pressure is OK, and you don't have any valvetrain noise then it might be OK to leave it alone (for now).

 

If you are mechanically inclined then do the valve cover gaskets, they aren't a big deal.

 

-Heikki

You should really try re-torquing the oil pump bolts. That requires removal of the plastic timing belt covers, which means the crank pulley has to come off. Prior to that the aux drive belts must be removed.

 

I don't like the thought of losing oil pressure at the pump.

The thing about it is, unless they know exactly where the leak is coming from, ie low pressure or high pressure side of the oil pump, you really can't say whether it's a big deal to leave the leak go.

 

If it's on the low pressure side of the pump, yeah it's probably not too bad. However if the o-ring that seals the high pressure side of the pump to the block is worn, and you're getting high pressure oil mixing with the low pressure, and then leaking, you would want to fix that sooner then later.

 

The reason the labor is so expensive, is because they essentially have to remove the timing belt and all that stuff. Here's some pics of my timing belt/oil pump job

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8080/subaru/images/timingbelt

I bought the Haynes manual and it has given me the confidence to do the valve covers. Maybe next weekend. It has also discouraged me from attempting the oil pump job. We'll see how it looks at my next checkup (3k miles), and maybe make a decision then.

 

 

Thanks for the help,

Reid

I had the same problem (oil leak) in my 97 OBS. they mechanic said the same thing, so i went to work, and ripped out the oil pump, we had a new one, but it turned out that the problem was that the screws in it were loose! we i tightened them up, slapped that puppy back together and it was fine.

it did take a while to get all of that out and back together though.