Hello! I’ve got a 2002 Lincoln town car. It’s leaking a little bit of oil. May be about half a quart a month. Over the last few months it’s developed a bit of engine noise. I’ll try to include a video so you guys can hear it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
That’s what I was thinking too. A worn timing chain.
I presume you are topping it off to full when you notice the oil level on the dipstick is low. Do you know where the oil leak is located? Is any oil leaking onto the ground? Puddle of oil under the car the next morning? Is it possible the oil isn’t leaking from the engine, external leak, but instead being burned in the engine, coming out the exhaust pipe?
One common oil leak location is the valve cover. If that’s the problem, often isn’t overly expensive to repair by replacing the valve cover gaskets & seals. I’ve had to do that on my Corolla a couple of time. My truck’s valve cover gaskets are coming to that time it appears, noticing a little smoke from the exhaust manifold surface, small leak under one of the valve covers on one side…
Hey George, I’ve noticed a bit of oil near the head gasket. Nothing too excessive. Nothing from the tailpipe. No oil on the ground. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for your help.
That all sounds pretty normal. The missing oil could be burned in the engine. If not an excessive oil usage rate, the cat will eliminate the blue smoke before it comes out the tail-pipe. Some oil use is normal. If you are getting 500 miles from a half quart, that’s not an oil usage rate to worry much about. Just top off enough to keep it near the full mark on the dipstick. You say you use about a half quart a month. How many miles is that?
Timing chain wear & noise is often related to oil & filter maintenance done too infrequently. Has this job been deferred on your car at times over the years?
It has 150,000 miles on it. Truth be told, it drives OK. I’ve been pretty good about oil changes. I’m really hoping that I don’t need another timing chain. That job is expensive! On Monday, I’ll run the car past the mechanic here locally. Just as a precautionary measure. Thanks for the information george.
hmmm … wondering if this particular engine is one known to eat timing chains? The timing chains themselves are steel of course, but some versions apparently use plastic components in the guiding and tensioning system, and the plastic parts are the problem. I have a 50 year old Ford truck, 302 (5 L) V8, still has the original timing chain. Knock on wood … lol …
Yeah, sometimes the plastic chain guilds break off. Tomorrow I’ll remove the serpentine belt and see if the ticking noise goes away. If the noise does go away then I know it’s either the water pump or some other accessory and not the engine.
When my truck’s water pump is about to fail, it makes a sort of whirring or scraping noise. If you have plastic guides on the timing chain system, I’d guess more likely that than the water pump unfortunately. Check the water pump shaft for excessive sideways and back and forth play though.
