civic vx - source of oil leak near distributor?

[dlb]

i realize honda wants me to buy a new dizzy. i just want to replace the seal though so if anyone has a part # for it that would be lovely.

[nemo]

I don"t know about were you are but we have places that sell only bearings and seals. If you don't have a part number they just measure, look up the size and can usually come up with something workable. With a seal you need the shaft diameter as well as the outside measurements. Maybe there is some place similar online if you have no local resource.


PS Have you checked other forums for a part number for a substitute someone must have already found something that will work.

[tvbd56]

Originally Posted by Mista Bone

Honda wants you to replace the whole distributor.

So on these distributor caps, do you see the hole in the center of the cap? The middle cap does not have the inner oil seal and the two outside caps do have the seals. I have no idea if your distributor is the same or close to mine but I'll look for the seals that I bought and get a link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-Accord...c4ccda&vxp=mtr

[dlb]

great, thanks for the link tvbd56!

so the inner distributor seal is part # BH3888-E0 and its measurements are 22.5x12.5x5mm. i just ordered one and look forward to taking care of this annoying leak.

[Honda]

I had similar leak on a mini van and I bought the inner seal online, it was very slightly wider than the old one and though no big deal. it didn't work and ended up buying complete distributor.

[dlb]

been a long time but guess what. it's still be leaking. and i'm finally annoyed with it enough to try again.

i replaced the valve cover gasket, the distributor o-ring, the inner distributor seal, and none of those made a dent in the leak. i had given up, believing it was a weird external oil leak coming from the head gasket, which i wasn't about to replace for an annoying oil leak.

but today i remembered seeing an ad for VX years ago that said it had an oil leak at the V-TEC solenoid. i never knew what that was or where it was located so i looked it up. surprise, it's on the back side of the head, just behind the distributor. so i checked mine and it's covered in oil so i'm going to go ahead and replace those seals and see what happens.

it sure would be nice to not smell burning oil every time i have the blower fan on at a red light so my fingers are crossed.

[dlb]

well, that was easy. it looks like the offending seal was the one between the oil spool valve and the head. the spool valve had a ton of oily mess around it and when i removed it and tried to get the old seal out, it was so brittle that it snapped and came out in several pieces. i put the new one in, started the car and looked for obvious catastrophic leaks, all is well so far but time will tell.

there is another seal between the lower and upper parts of the spool valve. i bought that one at the same time since i wasn't sure what i'd find once i pulled things apart but that one does not appear to be leaking right now so i think i will leave it for the time being.

access was easy. unplug the 3 electrical harnesses. remove the small coolant hose that goes to the throttle body. to remove the three 10 mm bolts that fasten the spool valve to the head, use a 1/4" drive ratchet on the lower and passenger side bolts and a regular wrench on the driver side bolt. put a rag under the valve. pop the valve off.

if you want to separate the lower and upper portions of the spool valve, crack the three 10 mm bolts on top of the valve before you remove it from the head. easier than trying to do it on the bench later.

for those interested, the seals were beck arnley and the part #s were as follows:

block-to-spool-valve seal: 039-6578 ($20)
lower-to-upper-spool-valve seal: 039-6620 ($27)

pretty steep prices for such tiny pieces of rubber! i'm in canada so they might be slightly cheaper in the US but anything over $2 for these things is highway robbery IMO. oh well, i guess we're still laughing getting 40 mpg in a $1000 car.

[California98Civic]

congrats. always fun when a frustration like this gets resolved.