Head gasket replacement?

[rumdrums]

Hello,

Can someone tell me if the attached pic indicates oil leaking from inside the engine, or if this might just be coming from the oil cap? Unfortunately I'm totally ignorant in this area. But I'm about to spend about $1400 having my AC compressor, timing belt, and possibly water pump replaced, so I'm wondering if the oil leakage here indicates more serious problems / time to get rid of the car. If someone more knowledgeable about this could help, I'd really appreciate it.

BTW, it's got about 135k.

--Thanks

 

[vw.fe2o3]

IMO, besides the oil cap drips, that's just valve cover gasket and spark plug seal leakage. Normal for our car's age, time to replace them.
Mine's doing it too and I'll replace it when I do the timing belt soon. Suggest you do the same (shop is probably planning to anyway) since the valve cover comes off for all that other stuff. The gasket kit should include spark plug seals. Not pricey.

 

[rumdrums]

Thanks a lot, that's exactly what I was looking for! Unfortunately I know little about the engine itself, but this gives me some good info to go by once they actually get under the hood and start poking around.

I noticed that the water pump is not included in the scheduled maintenance table at all -- I thought this was kind of strange since replacing it along with the timing belt seems to go hand in hand on most cars. Any thoughts as to whether I should go ahead and have them replace it anyway?

--Thanks

 

[dacquesta1]

definetily replace the water pump while the timing stuff is apart. 50-60 at pepboys

 

[rumdrums]

Well, so I had the dealership put the used A/C compressor in (12/12 warranty on it), replace the timing belt, check the water pump, and replace a couple of the engine mounts as well. They recommended not changing the water pump, as there were no leaks or problems after a pressure test with. Car feels wonderful after $1550 (gulp) worth of repairs.... still, I would have thought my steering wheel wouldn't be shaking anymore after replacing the mounts.

Thanks for your help!

 

[dacquesta1]

shaking steering wheel is either struts, end links, bad alignment or tire out of balance

btw where are you from?

 

[rumdrums]

Thanks for the info. The struts were replaced recently and the mechanic said there were no problems. I'm not 1) what end links are (hah!) or how the alignment is. I need to get my tires rotated anyway, so that part shouldn't be an issue.

I'm in the Dallas area, btw.

 

[dacquesta1]

End links connect the swaybar to the strut. Look it up on rock auto dot com for a picture they aren't expensive either.

 

[rumdrums]

Are they easy to install? I gave up doing my own maintenance (oil changes, mostly) since it's so hard to access the oil foilter on this car. I can jack up the front if I need to, hopefully that would be enough to get the work done? Thanks again.

 

[BRIAN_MP5T]

They are easy to install but you might need an angle grinder to get the old ones off..