Noticed this slight oil leak when under the car the other day just above the oil filter and slightly to one side near in the belt area.
Anyone tell me what that actually is? Not sure if the drip is actually from that or just above.
Dosn't look to be much of a leak as only a small amount on the under tray.
will it be a big job to sort?

 

When I had a oil leak near there turned out to be the front main seal was leaking.

 

Was that a hard or expensive fix? I can't believe how many things I've had to sort in the first maths of ownership especially with only 20k low miles! Hopefully this is one of the last things!

 

Seeing the head of the bolt under the tensioner makes me believe this has been a problem for a while. Looks like caked on oil in that area. Need to dig further as any oil leak is not good and needs repairing.

 

So it is the tensioner I'm looking at? It had a service at a jaguar specialist only about 3 mths ago and as they changed the oil filter, I'm amazed they didn't notice it and report? It's not a cam belt on these cars is it so is that belt for water pump etc? I'm not quite up on the engine yet as used to Subaru flat four!

 

I deal with leaks all the time at work so this is a semi professional opinion. The area of the leak looks pretty clean like the oil is washing away the dirt on the tensioner. An oil seep will be dirty all over. If it's leaking bad enough to wash the metal I would deal with it. Per what 'it' is, I don't know. I'd suspect the crank seal if it was slinging oil around the circumference. If it's not slinging suspect gravity or air flow to affect where the oil is going to accumulate a drip from. I'd suggest using a decent light and a little inspection mirror to look around and try and figure out what's going on. I'd them remove the belt and possibly the tensioner and keep looking.

I'm having a hard time visualizing what's around it. Timing cover or cam timing module seal. Possibly the tensioner boss is cracked which would suck. As said, crank seal if it' slinging.

 

Hey thanks Ranchero, it does seem to be caked on the side of the block all around there so may indeed be slinging it around. Rather than a drip 'downwards' As I said, the under tray doesn't seem to have much on it so it seems to be staying local. From the replies, it looks like tensioner seal if that makes sense?
I will have to get it stripped down then for further investigation.

 

View is looking straight up by the way around centre line of the car.

 

The tensioner just bolts to the spring loaded arm. The arm is bolted to a boss somewhere on the front of the engine (thinking timing cover). No seals.

If it's slinging that much oil up, a whole lot more should be below the crank. Some folks shove their smart phones in small areas and spam pictures trying to get a good shot. Sometimes you have to cheat.

You really should add what flavor XK you have in your signature. 5.0's are probably different vs. 4.2's up front.

 

Cheers, it's the 4.2 XKR 2008. I guess it could be coming from just above there and the oil settling at the bottom of that cover type thing? Just wondered if it was a common thing and people have seen before.

 

How about clean the whole area and then you may be able to pinpoint the genesis of the leak better in a few days?

 

I just took it to a independent jaguar service center. They replaced the front main seal and some other thing that they said would get destroyed in the process so they changed that too. I called jaguar about the other thing they were talking about and they said the same thing can't remember what the name of the part they were talking about.
But anyway I paid about 700.00 to get it fixed. Haven't had any problems since.

 

Yep, worth a go when get chance to get it back on the ramps. Might be able to get some better pics as well. Need a bit of dry weather as not stopped raining!

 

If you want to reliably pinpoint a leak in a hard to inspect area, add some black light dye to your oil, run it for a day or two, then reinspect with a black light. It removes all guesswork and doesn't require anything to be cleaned.

 

Interesting method, not sure if bad enough to show up straight away though? Think I'll try the good clean and keep inspecting first and take from there. Just hoping not an expensive job!

 

Leaks are like detective stories. You look at the clues as you unravel the case to figure out what the problem is. From experience cleaning just means you are starting the leak investigation over from the beginning or worse muddying up the evidence so you have no idea what happened as you take it apart. A leak that washes off the dirt will lead you to the source if care is taken during disassembly.

Working on that area isn't hateful if you put the car on stands and then lift the hood to vertical. If memory serves Jaguar even drilled pin holes so you can lock the mounts with the hood vertical and the shocks removed. Clever they are.

 

I know what you mean. Some careful investigation is needed then. Will post back when I know more and hopefully get it sorted one way or another. Cheers

 

The time it takes for the dye to appear will depend on how fast it's leaking. When I rounded off bolts for a living, this was the first step if the source of the leak wasn't immediately obvious, and you can get the dye, flashlight and safety glasses from any auto parts store.