Ive been battling with a timing chain cover leak on my 1995 maxima. I heard its a tough job to reseal. Only silicon can seal it, is this true? No gaskets are made for this? Also, they say that my oil pan is also leaking, eekkk.

If I forgo the repair, will i eventually spring a horrible leak driving down the freeway at 65mph and perhaps ruin the engine? Or can i ignore it and let it leak like other cars and just keep an eye on the oil.

Anyone have similar issues with leaking timing chain covers or oil pans, are these not so common or common in this vehicle?

thanks, any input, links, help, advise is greatly appreciated in advance.

 

Mine is leaking too. When I took off my sc bracket it started leaking. It has been about 20 days so far. Does yours leak a puddle more than some drops? It seems to spread over a somewhat big area(6-8 inch long and couple inch wide). I dont see as it being an immediate problem. I dont think it will be to hard to fix either. I would think it to be best to drain the oil first, clean area well and then apply the silicone seal. Sounds like good fun while I put the blower back on ( if I ever get it back from vortech).

 

I had the same problem. It was only leaking a little and didn't have to add oil between changes. All of a sudden it went to a 2 quart a day leak. There is a rubber U shaped gasket where the timing chain cover meets the upper oil pan that was missing about a 1/4 inch off the end. I had to pull the front timing cover to get to it. A timing gasket kit cost me $13 at Advance auto parts. It has what you need to seal this. Most of the cover is just silicone sealer. Good luck if you decide to pull that cover it's a b@tch.

 

its strange, it varies actually, some days are worse than others. for example, there might be half dollar size drop, then i drive and return, next day, 3-4 drops in the same area of larger size.

I believe this might be attributed to the aluminum shifting from heat; which is why i get different drops at different times, but unsure about it. There is also more than one cover and im not exactly sure which cover its leaking from.

How long does it take to do the job? do u have a link for the gasket or any additional info?

 

you might as well just engine swap (the labor would be cheaper too!)....taking off the cover is huge....easier to pull the engine to do it!!! just through in a bottle of oil stop leak...but ask around in the fluids forum...they will tell you which one to get that doesn't harm the engine at all, but rather swells the seals...

 

Alrighty, I had a ver similar problem in that area and have done the job multiple times.
You gotta remover a lot of stuff and is not a fun project at all. Requires good amount of tools to make your life easy, and huge change that it will come back. I say that because I have heard of very good quality mechanics try to fix it and still have the problem. Especially have that limited amount of space. After attempting to do it twice, I had just bought a new engine and swapped it. No leaks so far.........

Goodluck
Christopher

Also it's expensive in labor if done elsewhere and they probably will rip you off.......

 

Since I took my blower bracket off and the only bolts I put back are the motor mount bolts which are 2 inches too long... My problem happened immedietley! So just maybe if there were something holding it together this might not happen

 

There is a front and back timing cover. If it's just the front cover it is a big job but it took me about 8 or 9 hrs to do(if I had to do it again I could probably do it in 4 or 5hrs). You can get the front cover off without removing the upper oil pan and valvecovers like the manuals tell you to do. The rear cover is another story it might be easier to do a motor swap. My motor doesn't leak a drop now and I'm much happier with my Max now.
As far as the gasket kit goes it's made by Felpro. I just wanted to buy the rubber gasket for the front cover but they only sold the kit which includes a bunch of O-Rings for the rear cover. You should be able to pick one up at any auto parts store.

 

I hate that job... really really hate it. I did it and its still leaking but its the rear valve cover gasket... now I have to take off the entire intake manifold to access it.

 

do u have a link for that felpro kit? my local shop told me they didnt make any gasket kits for it, that only silicon is used for that job.

 

You can use just silicone if you want to but your better off using the rubber gasket for the bottom.. but you dont HAVE to.

ANd yes they make it, they just dont give a crap and dont want to look it up. Go somewhere else... the part number for Fel Pro will be TCS and a number... TCS stands for Timing Chain Set.

 

http://www.partsamerica.com/SelectPa...g+Cover+Gasket
Try this link

 

Excellent, thank you for the link, much appreciated.

Another question, how about pulling the engine to do the job. its quiet tight in that area. Could one of the covers be warped? I depend on the car and I am reluctant to buy a used engine from japan because that could host a plethora of other issues.

Ive heard pulling the engine can lead to other electrical/mechanical issues, whats the likelyness of that though?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.