Oil Leak Left side looking(passenger) HELP

[lilonespaz]

Hello all

Recently ive developed a coolant and oil leak. I had my water pump replaced about a year ago due to cracking and the coolant has started dripping over the past two to three months, i have not been able to pin point where the leak is coming from yet... now its leaking quite bad about once a week or so i need to fill up/top off the coolant.
That isn't my main concern right now as the coolant reservoir never becomes empty of coolant just low enough for the light to pop on but still has some in the expansion/reservoir.

Now on to the main issue/more pressing issue imo.
About a month or so ago i noticed i was having a very small oil drip like a couple drops on my driveway. It wasn't too big of a leak at first just some drops on the driveway. Over the past couple weeks though it has gotten a lot worse. I noticed oil all over the top off left side engine. It does not appear to be the PCV or the oil cap. Im going to check the filter next i read that over tightneing it can cause leak, but i have oil sitting directly on top pooling in the little crevices around the spark plug/coil packs and oil cap/dipstick. Although ive driven around with this filter for about 3k miles and only recently started getting the leak... i drive roughly 600-700 miles per month so not a lot of driving so i dont think its the filter being on wrong/over tightened.

Oil is not in the coil pack/spark plug ive checked there its completely clean.

I will attach some pics of the top of the engine and bellow.

I also have oil caked all the way down my motor(some fresh and some older oil slightly dried). The pancake pipe is visibly wet with oil now along with the oil pan and basically everything on the entire left side of the motor down has a actual liquid wet oil look and if you touch it liquidy oil will be on your hands.

Its not pooling oil in the driveway but stains are starting to get worse, i cant see the oil dripping or seeping out anywhere that i can see visually from what i can tell.

Please see these pics and let me know what you guys think.


*The reason i dont think its the PCV is i did the test where you pull the engine cap and it started sputtering and sounding like it wanted to die, so if i remember correctly that means the pcv should be working fine?

I did recently switch oil (the last two oil changes) with liquimolly next gen where i had previously used castrol exclusively. Filter is OEM. Both same weights 5w-40.
Not sure if that could do anything but figured id post as thats the only change ive made the past year.


Any thought or ideas?

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Looks like it might be your upper timing cover gasket, common issue. I had to replace mine as well and had a very similar leak. Its a huge PITA to do with the engine mount and bracket in place but its possible with a very long 10mm wrench. The bottom two bolts are difficult to reach. You can always remove the engine mount and bracket too but the bracket requires a special triple squart short bit to remove and dropping the engine down a bit to get it out.

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Also theres an o-ring inside the cam adjuster end where the solenoid slides into that you should replace too while you have the cover off.

 

[lilonespaz]

Looks like it might be your upper timing cover gasket, common issue. I had to replace mine as well and had a very similar leak. Its a huge PITA to do with the engine mount and bracket in place but its possible with a very long 10mm wrench. The bottom two bolts are difficult to reach. You can always remove the engine mount and bracket too but the bracket requires a special triple squart short bit to remove and dropping the engine down a bit to get it out.

Yes i thought at first it was the timing chain gasket. But then was wondering if it was maybe the valve cover? I was reading a bunch of post on the forums and it seems like theres quite a bit of things that can go wrong.

One more note i forgot to add, if its even relevant, the last oil change i did was the very first one i used a fluid extractor from inside the dip stick. All other oil changes before that were done the old fashioned way with unbolting etc. I doubt its related but just remembered i used that for the first time on this last oil change.

 

[Sspcivic31]

it was probably originally the cam adjuster oring leaking. i just replaced the seals on my wifes tiguan because of same problem. also discovered the check valve in the pcv was toast which was pushing all the oil out of the timing cover under boost. you can take the pcv hose off the intake side and blow into it. if it doesn't immediately engage the check valve pcv is done for. the factory sealnt on the cam cover to head interface was fine still @140K+. cam cover is a pita. it takes some finagling to get in and out. i also had to leave the two lower bolts out to get the cover back in. next time i would be tempted to pull the motor mount and the bracket that attaches to the block off. the block bracket is whats in the way. its doable without removal but it wasnt great to deal with.
p/ns for the seals:
Seal between adjuster and cover: 06H103483D (pay attention to this. its tapered and needs to go in correctly)
Cover gasket: 06H103483C
Internal o-ring: WHT007212B
cover bolts: 06J103831A (i diddnt replace these but they have orings on the cover side )

 

[Tony48]

Clean off all the oil residue and check periodically to see where the oil leak is coming from. I agree with others that it's likely the upper timing cover gasket and/or the cam adjuster o-ring. They are both relatively easy and cheap to replace so start there. If you do the upper timing cover gasket in the car without disconnecting the engine mount bracket do yourself a favor and buy a ratcheting wrench.

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Is it even possible to fit a ratcheting 10mm down there with the bracket in place? I tried with mine but didnt even come close to fitting. A regular 10mm open end wrench fits but barely. Its a takes forever to get the two bottom ones since I could only turn like 1/10 turn a time lol. Ive done it a few times and its a huge pain. Just a big pain to get the engine mount bracket off too. Theres a trick where you can also leave the coolant hoses in place by taking a screwdriver and pushing them out of the way and stick the screwdriver in a hole on the engine mount. The dipstick will also need to be disconnected and pushed out of the way or removed completely to get the bottom front screw out.

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

Also I think its the gasket and not the cam cover seal cause you can see the gasket on the timing cover wet with oil in one of the pics and it seeps out of there and pools on top of the cover by the oil filler, also when this leaks it tends to be heavily biased towards the passenger side and likes to drip down all over the lower timing cover, turbo lines, and pass side subframe areas

 

[Tony48]

Is it even possible to fit a ratcheting 10mm down there with the bracket in place? I tried with mine but didnt even come close to fitting. A regular 10mm open end wrench fits but barely. Its a takes forever to get the two bottom ones since I could only turn like 1/10 turn a time lol. Ive done it a few times and its a huge pain. Just a big pain to get the engine mount bracket off too. Theres a trick where you can also leave the coolant hoses in place by taking a screwdriver and pushing them out of the way and stick the screwdriver in a hole on the engine mount. The dipstick will also need to be disconnected and pushed out of the way or removed completely to get the bottom front screw out.

Yeah I did it with a ratcheting wrench. Although i have a pretty low profile set (expensive Mac wrenches lol).

 

[kthor7031]

I am going to guess timing cover as well. I have almost the same amount of oil on my engine in the exact same places. I am attributing the leak to a catch can incident I had one winter when my lines froze, that definitely put more pressure in the crankcase than designed for. Been trying to hunt it down as a charge system leak from turbo, TOP and intercooler pipes, but it passed a boost leak test at 30PSI.

 

[lilonespaz]

Just to update anyone else. It was the upper timing chain cover leaking oil. Replaced and fixed now.
But for good measure i also changed the PCV valve and rear hose. Gaskets to the oil fill cap and dip stick. I also did a new diverter valve for funs.

Also my coolant leak was not my new (less than year old) waterpump but the inlet pipe flange to the water pump. So just replacing that pipe to fix the coolant leak.

 

[zrickety]

I just replaced that coolant pipe also. Mine was leaking at the driver side where it mounts to the head. Developed a crack under the weight of the harness attached to it. I relocated the harness a bit so it doesn't have to touch that pipe anymore. When you order the pipe, you'll need to get the o-ring as well...it doesn't come with one.

 

[torga]

I just replaced that coolant pipe also. Mine was leaking at the driver side where it mounts to the head. Developed a crack under the weight of the harness attached to it. I relocated the harness a bit so it doesn't have to touch that pipe anymore. When you order the pipe, you'll need to get the o-ring as well...it doesn't come with one.

+1, my o-ring was so flat when I pulled out the fitting. So glad I ordered a fresh o-ring.

 

[lilonespaz]

That's quite valuable information to have. I had a friend who has a shop do the work because i didn't want to just keep trial and error replacing things. All and all i got the upper timing chain cover and gaskets replaced, the coolant line/flange replaced and I'm assuming whatever gaskets there, a oil change, DSG service and fuel filter replaced along with them cleaning up my engine from the oil/coolant leaks for $750.

I think that's pretty fair seeing how they needed to completely clean and diagnose where the leak was coming from. It was a bit tricky. It DID NOT leak at all under idle. It only leaked under load which made my buddy think the PCV may have been an issue as well which was replaced. Plus the DSG service is a handful money wise usually anyways.
*Edit Spelling Mistakes.

 

[kthor7031]

Glad to hear that's what it was. Makes me feel more confident in the source of my leak.