hey guys i have had a pretty severe oil leak for a while now and today i finally decided to find it. i put some uv dye in the oil ran it for about 2 mins then started looking. i found that oil was accumulating on the oil pump lip that meets the oil pan... i automatically assumed that the front oil pump seal around the crank was bad (which is about 2 years old).

well i removed the crank pulley and removed the lower timing cover to get a better look and this little thing came out of the lower timing cover




so i looked around the front seal and it looked fine but it seemed like oil was coming out of this small hole to the right of the crank



has anyone ever seen this problem or know what is supposed to go in that hole or what that little cylinder thing that fell out goes to?

 

it looks as if that small hole is threaded so maybe a screw or plug goes there? this was a new oil pump from engnbldr and was installed as is, i have the original oil pump but it is at my parents house and im away at college so i cant compare how the original pump looks

 

The sleeve appears to be one of those that fit into the timing cover. Since the cover is plastic, each bolt hole is sleeved so that you have something to tighten against. Check your cover; are all the sleeves still in place?

I do not know why the bolt-hole might leak. But oil is slippery and gravity is not your friend. My guess is a slow leak in the crank seal that is just getting slung and accumulating at that point.

 

Ill check into the crank seal then but everything looks pretty dry above this hole.... What I might do is run to the store and buy an oil pump, that way I can compare the two to see if something is supposed to go there

 

Those sleeves are also used in the valve cover, so maybe its leaking from there too

 

That hole is indeed for one of the fasteners used for the lower timing belt cover. And that sleeve is suppose to be inserted into that hole as well.