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I have a 93 Honda Accord, and I’m leaking oil and smoking like crazy. I took it to a mechanic and he told me it was the oil seal on my distributor. I had it replaced, but I’m still leaking oil. We’ve traced it to either the VCG or the oil pan gasket. The oil will drip to under the car while it’s running, but doesn’t leak when off. The oil is also puddling up under the distributor (hence why we thought it was coming from there). I need help with this, and any info is greatly appreciated!
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Assuming you have isolated other possible causes, there were two spots on the ’93-’97 Accord with the 2.2L or 2.3L engines that would leak significantly when the engine was running. One was due to a bad oil filter cooler gasket, and the other was from the balance shaft seal which is behind the timing belt cover.
The oil cooler is a sandwich style adapter that goes between the block and the oil filter. You will see that there are coolant lines coming out of it if your car has one, and it’s what the oil filter threads onto. There’s a ring gasket on the engine block side of the cooler that overtime becomes brittle and can’t develop a crack which the oil leaks past. Generally that can cause a lot of smoking because the oil will leak and drop down onto the exhaust. To change the gasket, I believe it is either a 24 mm or 27 mm socket that you require to unscrew the threaded Spicket that the oriole filter threads on too. That’s what holds down the sandwich adapter. Your mechanic will likely know how to access it to change the gasket.
The balance shaft seal is a little more involved because you need to remove the timing belt cover to access it, but if that’s where your leak is coming from you will notice that there is oil dripping fairly steadily from around the crankshaft pulley area of the cover. There was an update kit that was available from Honda for the earlier generation of Accords which added a special bracket that would keep the seal from working it’s way out.
It sounds like you’re going to need to take it back to your mechanic and have him look at it while the engine is running on a hoist. I was a Honda tech for nine years and replaced a few balance shaft seals as well as oil filter cooler gaskets.
If it is the balance shaft seal and your engine doesn’t have the updated bracket from Honda that holds it in, I’d recommend seeing if you can still get one.
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Most of my experience with Honda engines is the 94 – 97 model, but I’m assuming that the 93 is pretty similar.
The distributor actually has several seals. One is internal. When it is leaking, oil leaks INSIDE the distributor, and eventually drips out from where the cap meets the distributor body.
That seal is no longer available from Honda, but can be found in the aftermarket. I know parts train sells it, and I’m about 99% certain that your 93 uses the same seal as the 94 – 97 engine. It is part number W0133-1640599 and sells for around 20 with shipping.
I have also seen the oil pressure switch (turns on the oil warning light) leak a lot of these engines. It is on the back side of the engine, between the block and the firewall, up above the oil filter. An oil leak there will generally run down the back of the engine, and drip off the back of the oil pan directly onto the exhaust system where it will burn off, and smoke like crazy.
The switch is readily available pretty much everywhere, and isn’t terribly expensive. My only warning is that the ones you buy from Auto Zone for like $13 are garbage, and are very likely to either leak again, or turn your oil light on for no reason, so you might want to buy from Honda, or at least get a good brand name from aftermarket, and not go with the Auto Zone piece. It should be pretty easy with a flash light to get under there and see if there is oil coming from that switch.
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