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meow77 said:<snip>
the Honda dealer told me that because of the way the engine is designed that it will most likely leak a bit of oil off the passenger side of the engine where the timing belt is. eg.. Head meets the block.so the head gasket doesn't seem to be doing its job... plus I have to admin on the pasenger side there are onlyl to little bolts holding the engine down that I think that's pathetic! .. I think that's bogus so
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I'm driving it around now and starting to see a bit of oil seapage... I think that's ridiculous and will most likely make Honda give me a new engine as I think this one is faulty. I don't care what design problems they have oil should not be leaking on a relatively new engine.
Anyone else have problems with oil seapage on their insight engines?
Its a bit unclear from the information you posted as to the degree of oil "leakage." A _small_ trace of oil such that it provides a sticky film that collects road dust isn't a leak, and _may_ never increase. Its both a "problem" of current oil seal technology _and_ the very light weight oil the Insight uses.
_IF_ the "leak" has a wet shiny appearance then its something that should be addressed. Such leaks loose a enough oil to wash off accumulating road dirt. Whether or not a sufficient amount of oil has been lost to reach the ground is simply a matter of time.
There is an earlier post of a Canadian (?) Insight owner that had a small seepage not truly qualified as a leak. After the head gasket and related gaskets / seals were replaced the last report was the seepage had stopped. But that was late last fall and time along with summer (hotter, which promotes such seepage) will tell.
See the thread titled,
head gasket?!?
in this forum from OCT 03
With Honda's increasing field repair data they _may_ have learned that attempting to repair such oil traces has a very low rate of success and at best are temporary.
My best advice is the old cliché "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
HTH!