Hey all. I just came from the dealer who said my oil pump is starting to leak. I have 79k miles in my car. The dealer's recommendation is to wait until the timing belt service to replace the oil pump at the same time. I think he said the timing belt service is at 110k miles.

That seems awfully far away. I only drive around 12k to 15k miles per year (bought my car used).

Would it be safe to drive the car for that long with a leaking oil pump? Or should I have the timing belt and oil pump replaced soon? The dealer quoted $1700 for just the oil pump.

I'm planning a 3 hr trip to the snow in about a month. Should I get the oil pump taken care of before then or do you think it'll be ok as long as I monitor the oil level?

Thanks.

 

its a water pump!
it pumps coolant throughout your engine block!

if its leaking; and the coolant reaches the minimum level in your reservoir; the car will over heat!
if you run the car while its over heating; you can warp the heads inside the engine.


always make sure that the coolant reservoir is filled!!!

as to when you should replace the water pump; thats up to you.
its ideal to change both the water pump and timing belt at the same time; since they are next to each other and theres not much labor to do both, once everything is off.

 

Hey pants, Justin is right. Double-check that your dealer said water pump, not oil pump. Assuming it's the water pump (evidenced by water pump's weep hole leaking), you might as well change the timing belt early (aka do the 105k service at 79k). At "12-15k miles/yr", that's roughly two years early. Alternative is to pay for the (rather costly) water pump labor twice.

 

That's weird. I have it typewritten on the invoice as, "tech found oil pump is leaking oil. we recommend oil pump be reseal when timing belt is replace. estimate for oil pump reseal and timing belt service. " $1700

 

I really do think its the water pump; since both timing belt and water pump are in the same general location.

Also, this is the first time that Ive been on the forums and seen a report on an oil pump.

hmmm. interesting.

 

I'm taking it to another place for another estimate anyway, so I can verify then. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on both oil and coolant levels.

 

Good man!

 

That's where I stopped using dealers for big maintenance stuff. They quoted me $2,000 for replacing all the belts. My mechanic did it for $600 - and added in a new water pump.

 

Agreed. I only went to the dealer to verify that the bluetooth module was dead and get the part number so I can do it myself.

 

I was told (by the dealer also) my oil pump was leaking about 6 months ago, along with the rear main seal. It was really small or slow leak at that time and even now oil never hits the ground. But if you get under your car (or put it on a lift if avail.) take a look it'll be pretty obvious...oil or coolant I mean. My leak has gotten slightly worse in the last month or so since it got "cold" out...(I'm in phoenix). Which I think is likely just the seal contracting a little with the colder weather. I haven't found any evidence of the Oil Pump itself leaking but I can see the oil from the rear main seal area, obviously the seal itself isn't visable directly. But the general area the oil is coming from is in that direction. In case that helps ya OP.

I'm planning to get the rear main seal replaced sometime soon. Then I'll know for sure.

 

Hey guys, dont take out the pitchforks just yet:

the oil pump is accessible only by removing the timing belt and actually a heck of a lot of parts. I'm not surprised if it takes $1700 to do that including the timing belt.

It's probably a minor leak to be honest. I have some oil coming down and getting the oil filter kinda grimy but it's nothing major. I maybe lose or burn half a quart after 5k miles.

 

lame oil pumps, why you leak!??!?!?!

 

It's even better since they discontinued the oil pump...good call


15100-RGL-A01PUMP ASSY., OIL (AISIN)1$159.95 $108.45 Discontinued

 

This seems exactly how the dealer described my problem... a very slow leak. It's been pretty cold here the last few months also.

 

I had oil pump leaks when i had 2G CLs. I just waited till got worse and checked oil level once in awhile. It's slow leak,but gets worse as time goes by. So i finally took care of that.

I bought my TLs on Jan.1 last year. It had 35,000 miles when i purchased it. Guess what!
I noticed oil pump leak when i did first oil change. I was like "WTF?" I didn't wait at that time. I did job done right away and when i removed timing belt components, i noticed auto tensioner was going bad too. I also replaced that one at the same time.
I would wait until it gets worse. $1,700 is big money. It's a lot of work. I think i drove my CL for quite long period time until i finally got it fixed leak.
Just keep checking oil level once in awhile and keep a or 2 qrts of oil in the trunk. That's what i did.

 

Oil pump leaks are not rare on J series. You don't have to replace it first shot though. If you look at the oil filter from behind, just inwards you will see two female hex bolts. They can leak but forget trying to remove, they are in for life.
My Odyssey was leaking pretty bad so I cleaned them and smeared JB Weld on the surface of them. Let dry overnight and it was fine
I also had the VTEC assembly gasket weeping. Three 12mm bolts pull it off and change the brittle gasket along with the o-ring on the spool valve on the top of it.
Did that and nice and dry.

 

My late but current reply to this issue:

​​​​​​​I need to address my leaking oil pump and here is why it costs so much to fix it:
1. Yes, the timing belt area needs to be accessed to get to the oil pump .
2. A leaking oil pump is not serious if you check the oil levels often, so wait till you need to replace the timing belt.
3. If the oil pump is leaking, replacing just the seals is not a fix. A leaking oil pump requires replacing the pump.
4. Some suggested that the leak may be the water pump leaking. Look at the leaking fluid! It doesn't take a genius to figure out if the leak is oil or coolant. If it's oil, it's the oil pump, but also may be the head plugs that exist in each cylinder head.
5. If you need an oil pump, the sub-frame needs to be dropped to get access which is very expensive. Replacing your timing chaing doesn't require this but removing/replacing the pump does.
6. Wait till you replace the timing chain, then replace the pump. Replacing the pump is hugely expensive and doing the timing chain won't add more labor, only a cost for parts (timing chain, water pump, idler pulley, etc.).
7. As of March 2017, the dealer cost to replace the pump is approx $2000 (in Los Angeles area).

 

There is some correct, and some incorrect info here.

#3 Maybe. There are gaskets between the oil pump and block, a seal around the crankshaft, and Hondabond between the edge of the pump and the block, all of which can leak. So for under $60 in gaskets/seals/Hondabond, the pump can be resealed.

#5 No. No need to drop the subframe. You can drop the pan around the subframe, you simply need to slightly jack up the right side of the engine.

I just did this job in my garage on jack stands while doing my TB change, so I'm intimately familiar with this. Rusted exhaust flange bolts can go to hell.

 

Good info about the subframe. Guess I should question the dealer about this, but maybe it's different on my 2002 CL-S than a TL.

 

It's all good.

If you have a few minutes, here's a YouTube video of a tech doing a oil pump reseal.

 

Good video but damn, the mechanic too a ton of stuff apart. My dealer quoted $2000 to replace the oil pump and from the video it looks like part of the exhaust is removed, some lower subframe pieces are removed not to mention the timing belt cover/pieces. This does not look like a 2hr job which may explain the steep price. Like I told the service advisor, I'll wait till I need another timing belt before addressing the oil pump. It's not as though my oil pump is gushing oil.

 

Yes, elsewhere in the forum the number of 4-8 hours additional labor (on top of the timing belt labor) is reasonable. It's all the labor to remove the timing belt, and then the fun to actually remove & reseal the oil pump.

You have to lower the exhaust in order to remove the oil pan (it can actually stay attached to the back of the car, but must come off the front & rear catalytic converters), which must be removed to remove the oil pickup, which is required to pull the oil pump.

The timing belt pulley has to come off to pull the oil pump, so if you are already doing the timing belt, resealing the oil pump isn't too painful. So if you can handle the oil leak until your next timing belt change is due, it will reduce the impact on your wallet.

 

A few quarts of oil here and there sure is cheaper!

 

its me that stated 4 additional hours needed to seal the pump if you do the TB/WP job at the same time, so you are paying about 10-12 hours of labor.

 

Been topping off my oil for two years! Will have the shop do this at my next tb job which is about 95k miles away haha

 

sound like a road trip to quickly rack up those mileage lol.

 

How slow are we defining here? I haven't measured too accurately when topping off the oil, but the dipstick seems to be going dry after roughly 1k miles. If I go through essentially 5 quarts between oil changes, between my mileage (115k) to the next TB change (210k miles) that's 19 5 quart jugs I'll be going through. Let's say I get the oil for about $25/jug, between here and now that ends up costing me roughly $475 over the 2-3 years to run up to 95k miles.

 

^^ I go through 2 quarts between every oil change. So definitely worth it!

 

So maybe for you, it'll be more cost effective to replace it earlier than we do

 

thank god my Type S still still dry at 106k miles, I ask the dealer inspect when the car had TB/WP done and they said it not leaking. I confirm that again at 105k miles, however my Base had 76 k miles and already starting to leak (after I crawl under the car), well I told the service advisor at the dealer to wait for the 105k service.