Hello all,

Just picked up a 2010 TSX 6 speed about 10 days ago and am noticing a leak on the passenger side rear of the engine at the bottom of the head. I have an Acura extended bumper to bumper warranty that the original owner had purchased and its good until January 2017 so I was not too concerned about it when I picked up the car from the Acura dealer since it drives great otherwise and only has 54000km on it and was maintained at Acura since day 1 for everything.

I attached a pic for reference. The leak is from just below the engine serial # sticker to where that black plate is at the bottom left of the pic. It's definitely wet even though the dipstick hasn't moved in the 1000km that I have driven it. Have any of you experienced the same thing? Based on the diagrams I have had a chance to look at it seems like there are some solenoids/sensors that have gaskets in the area so I'm wondering if it's a simple fix.

The dealer I got the car from brushed it off as nothing and I didn't think much of it since I have that warranty till 2017 , but it's clear that they just wanted the car out of the lot and didn't really feel like fixing whatever was needed to remedy the leak.

 

so, you're going to need to narrow down that leak even MORE!

as you have already pulled up the diagrams that show you where the gaskets and stuff are.

jack up the car and have some one start the car, while you look underneath for the EXACT leak.

 

Since it's nothing major I might just keep an eye on the oil level until my next oil change which should be at the beginning of December in about 6000km.

Hopefully Acura doesn't try to play any games and brush it off and actually fixes the leak.

 

That appears to be a small leak or weepage around the top of the cam chain cover. Cover is not under pressure but there is a lot of oil slung around to lube the chain and chain guide.

Unless you're losing a significant amount (drips on floor?), suggest living w/ small leak. It is possible to get a worse leak unless the job is done very carefully. It requires entire mating surface of oil pump to be covered w/ 3mm bead of liquid gasket and cover mated w/i 5 mins. A recipe for defects.

Also any time major engine work is done, there is also possibility of damage to existing components.

good luck

 

Definitely hoping it's not the timing chain cover since I'm aware they'll have to pretty much take everything off to get to it... at the same time kind of annoying leak to have. I'll monitor my driveway to see if it's big enough to drip. Strangely even the valve cover gasket has a very slight leak on the passenger side also but it doesn't go all the way down. Maybe the last lady that drove it tracked it weekly :P

 

I had this same issue around 40k miles (2010 TSX 5AT), dealer detected the issue and offered to fix it during a normal routine maintenance visit. They had the car a day and all was good!

 

Is it possible that the oil traces are due to oil / grease spills that, combined with high temperatures in the engine bay, end up below and appear as leaks?

I had that experience once, and it was exactly that. Just worth a look before allowing anyone to take things apart, which may actually cause more harm than good...

 

It's definitely not dripping all the way to the floor because even after 2000km and 2 weeks there are no drops on my driveway. Oil level hasn't moved either. I'll probably just point it out when I take it in for service in December.

 

Could be but it's very clean up from there all the way up to the valve cover gasket so I doubt it. If I start seeing spots on my driveway I'll take it in. If not I'll get Acura to look at it at my next scheduled maintenance.