Valve Cover Gasket

[ToolmanJohn]

So I have what seems like a very small persistent leak in the passenger side valve cover gasket, the driver side is fine. There is a oil stain around the front lip of the valve cover and it has made it's way down to the power steering pump and dirt has encrusted everything.

Checked the bolts for the cover that I can get to without taking the entire air intake off and they are nice and tight, no loosness. So, I will be changing the gaskets today. Haven't found much about the gasket changing procedure here in a forum search, only for 3rd gens and earlier. Time to open the factory manual....

I'll try and take a few good pictures during the process.

 

[ToolmanJohn]

So maybe it's not leaking after all.

I had everything on the left side apart, and was starting to wonder if I had to bother with the right driver side valve cover gasket at all. It looked a lot like a coating of oil and dirt.

Hmmmm. It made me start to think about things and I remember about a year ago I followed some really dumb advice (which sounded ok at the time) of using WD-40 to diagnose a serpentine belt squeal. The fan likely blew a lot of the WD-40 against the engine in that area becasue that's where I was spraying from.

So instead of replacing the valve cover gasket, I used some engine degreaser and a brush to scrub the cover and engine. Put things back together and I will see how it goes ina month or two.

Here are some pictures of the removal of the air intake to expose the valve cover.. REALLY EASY!! Getting the driver side uncovered is a lot more work.

 

[CrzyTaghi]

Valve gasket cover

Let me know how it goes, I have the same problem in mine and was planning on doing it myself although I am not sure where to start. Also if you could post more pictures or describe what you did exactly that would be a lot of help. Thanks.

 

[ToolmanJohn]

Wasn't a real leak

It turns out it was never a leak. Just the oil spray from the WD-40 I had used (admittedly not a good test). After a couple months there still wasn't any sign of more oil. I'm glad, because removing the driver side valve cover appears to be a lot of work removing the bits covering it. Exposing the passenger side was a piece of cake, but ultimately I didn't take it off.

As it turned out, I used a water spray from a bottle instead to wet the serpentine belt while the engine is running and the squeel goes away for a few seconds, then comes right back. I had replace almost every idler bearing, and the noise was still there!!! It finally turned out to be a worn out tensioner arm assembly. It was a bit of work to replace, but there is a great write up here that helped me a lot. New tensioner, quiet again. Cheap part, 4 hours of wrenching. Not overly complicated, just time consuming.