I was smelling oil on the exhaust after driving the car. I now have almost 250,000 miles on the engine and not one seal has been replaced. I crawled under looking for a leak and the leak is coming from behind the crank shaft pulley. My question is this, do we have to pull the timing belt to put in a new seal?

 

Yes, you definitely need to remove the belt, but there is a possibility that it is not the oil seal that is leaking, but the oil pump.

 

And don't forget to replace the belt & crank pulley too.

(Crank pulleys hate being pulled off the taper and frequently fall apart thereafter).

 

In 8 years of working with J engines, I have never heard of this problem. Perhaps you are talking about some other engine? What taper are you talking about?

 

I watched the video, and that answered a lot of questions. After cleaning up the oil underneath and going for a 20 mile drive, the smell is back. Most likely this is the oil pump seal. Now I am wondering what the cost is going to be to have this repaired. From the video the pan has to come off, so we are into an oil change, filter and pan gasket. Then the timing belt comes off to remove the front plate to replace the crank seal and oil seal., plus a gasket. Looks to be about a $1500 repair off the top of my head.
I will ask around and see what bids I get to do this.

 

The oil pan doesn't have a gasket, it's an RTV. Usually this job takes 6 to 8 hours + a few gasket.

 

It's general, but typically it afflicts most Hondas. I've heard of it happening to those with C & H Series engines.

Pulling the torsional damper off the nose of the crank often results in the rubber mass separating later on. If it wears a hole in the timing belt cover, you're in big trouble.

You can chance your arm and listen out for swishing noises, or just replace the damper when it's already all in bits.

 

I had a problem with an intake manifold seal, which caused a lot of burning oil smell. Check into that, too

 

The only car with this design in the US was the Honda Prelude, so the problem you describe affects less than one percent of Honda cars in USA. It's not most of Hondas.

 

The intake manifold does not have a single oil passage and it cannot smell oil in any way, if you have problems with the intake manifold gasket, then the maximum that you will get is a code for a lean mixture.

 

I plan on getting further into the engine compartment today and see if I can pinpoint where the oil is coming from. Then I will get a couple of estimates on getting it repaired.
As to the crankshaft pulley, it was replaced around 200,000 miles with a new one.

 

UPDATE: The two shops I checked said that the timing belt assembly will be part of the repair. One shop uses Aisin parts and the other doesn't. The one that uses the correct parts was $1800 to do the seal if it is the oil pump. The other shop said $1300 if it is just the crank seal and up from there to do the oil pump seal.

 

My close friend who wrenches on Jeeps and other cars said to put a few ounces of brake fluid in the oil and that should soften the seals and resolve the leak. I did that and have noticed the smell of oil has diminished somewhat. Cheaper than $1800!
Other than this one issue, the car is exceptionally reliable for a car with 250,000 miles. We are shooting for 350,000 miles.

 

Did the store explain to you the nature of the oil getting from the crankshaft to the exhaust manifold? This whole story sounds like nonsense. Regarding brake fluid, this is a temporary solution that only works if you are selling the car.

 

I know the brake fluid solution is only temporary and for now it seems to be working. The car never went into the sho for a diagnosis as they would have hit me for an hour shop rate to look at a leak. I plan on pressure washing that part of the engine to see if I can pinpoint the leak from either the seal or the oil pump. It is so tight back up behind where that stub axle is to see exactly where it is coming from.