Cam cover gasket replacement

[colb]

Zedshed Cymru visitor today 2.5 with Andy from Cardiff small leak of oil onto exhaust failed gasket. Old ones early signs of going hard hence the leak. Replaced and quick look at the underside whilst on the lift, good nick under there and pristine on top. New discs and pads planned for next visit plus oil and filter change. Andy lucky to find such a nice car it's been looked after by previous owners.

[bigwinn]

Lovely looking Maldives

[Roberltd2]

Just recently had the cam cover gasket replaced on my 2007 2.5si. Had gone brittle, was leaking oil so erratic idling and eventually the EML light showing up.
Replaced it (& eccentric shaft sensor which had become oiled up) & all is good again .

[colb]

Interesting that you say your leaking gasket caused an erratic idle.
Its not the oil leak causing that its air getting into the enginen past the leaking gasket, this then messes up your fuel trims as the cars exhaust sensors pick up extra air that has not been metered by the Maf, it fools the car into thinking its running lean so demands more fuel at the injectors to richen the mixture to counteract the lean condition it thinks it has. This will go on until its adding up to 20% more fuel it eventually realises something is wrong and sets the EML and a code in relation to fuel trims. If you have this going on you will certainly notice your mpg drops and you will be visiting the petrol pumps more frequently.
When renewing the cam cover gasket ensure you put new round rubber seals in under the cover retaining bolts, these go hard with age and heat cycles and dont compress well, reusing them runs the risk of your cover not sealing down enough.

[Chii]

Massively appreciate this post Colb. And the timing is pretty much excellent!
I've got literally every one of the symptoms, idling erratic for a while.
But the other two, the Oil top ups, more frequent pump visits just came about in the last month. And yesterday the EML!

Have you any idea on the cost this could be looking to fix?
And when I talk to my garage, I just ask them for a Cam Cover Gasket, & new rubber seals on the bolts?
They'll take it from there?

[Roberltd2]

Interesting that you say your leaking gasket caused an erratic idle.
Its not the oil leak causing that its air getting into the enginen past the leaking gasket, this then messes up your fuel trims as the cars exhaust sensors pick up extra air that has not been metered by the Maf, it fools the car into thinking its running lean so demands more fuel at the injectors to richen the mixture to counteract the lean condition it thinks it has. This will go on until its adding up to 20% more fuel it eventually realises something is wrong and sets the EML and a code in relation to fuel trims. If you have this going on you will certainly notice your mpg drops and you will be visiting the petrol pumps more frequently.
When renewing the cam cover gasket ensure you put new round rubber seals in under the cover retaining bolts, these go hard with age and heat cycles and dont compress well, reusing them runs the risk of your cover not sealing down enough.

Could be that I misunderstood about the erratic idling, but your explanation is exactly how mechanic explained it to me. The fuel economy was dropping like a stone before the gasket was replaced. All good now though. Next job is to replace the water pump and thermostat (while I'm at it?). Well overdue.

[Roberltd2]

My old Eunos Roadster is for sale on ebay at the moment, so with a bit of luck that will pay for the new water pump and thermostat