VVT Actuator Solenoid Oil Leak

This is an FYI for anyone pulling their valve covers to be sure to closely inspect the condition of their VVT Actuator Solenoid gaskets.

After replacing my water pump and buttoning everything back up, I detected no leaks. Of course I was mainly concerned with the timing chain cover gasket that I had just created.
I put it all back together, replaced the plastic engine cover and proceeded to happily put more 2k miles on the vehicle over the course of the summer.

Roughly 3 months and 2k later, after a high speed highway trip averaging speeds in the 80's with RPMs to match, I noticed a burning oil smell when stopped. This is the classic oil leak tell.

When I popped the hood I was greeted by an awful mess on the passenger side of the engine compartment. Oil was all over the place including more or less frozen to the AC lines - bizarre. When I popped the plastic cover off, I was met with oil up under there too - crazy. I first thought it was the dreaded crankshaft seal failing and dripping on the belts causing the spray up and around, but that area was dry.

After carefully washing off all the oil, visual inspections yielded nothing, so I assumed I had a pressure leak.
I resorted to using 2 oz of fluorescent dye in the oil combined with a black light and quickly found this as viewed from the passenger side of the engine.





The glowing yellow dye showed that the spraying oil was coming from a failed gasket around the VVT Actuator Solenoid. Running the engine at 3000RPM with a shop towel over the leak spot confirmed it was spraying tiny droplets up that would condense under the plastic cover and drip/blow all over.

Once I pulled the valve cover, I found that the gasket had cracked in half. I can only assume this happened when I pulled and replaced the cover during the previous water pump project.

In any case, the dye is around $4/oz if you buy 6oz - I used 2. Hopefully I will never need the other 4oz.
The gasket in question (CY0110233 Mazda or 6C535AB Ford) cost $9 from the local Ford dealer as the Mazda folks didn't have the part.
It took slightly less than 2 hours to pull the cover (thankfully it was the front/left bank and not buried), carefully drive out the old gasket without nicking the cover(very tough), carefully press in the new one, and put it all back together.

I didn't time the initial clean up procedure but it did include a trip to the car wash to carefully spray off all the oil without messing up any connections or electronics.

All is now well, but I will be looking with the black light every so often until the next oil change removes the dye.

Please keep us updated.

kornholio said:

Please keep us updated.

Click to expand...

Update: After several more long high speed trips, no oil leaks detected.

Problem solved.

So just driving it a lot solved the problem?

Huh? You did see that I found and replaced the leaking seal in the original post right?

Sorry I was thinking of another topic. Glad that was solved. Have you had any other problems with the car.

95% problem-free for 10 years.

After owning multiple Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Ford, Acura, BMW vehicles, Mazda has been the close to the best for reliability/mile. My '94 Lexus, which only ever had a window switch break in 7 years, was probably marginally better but far more expensive. My 7-series BMW was the biggest piece of junk ever and stupidly more expensive with only the Ford costing more out of pocket to maintain (broken trans).

I own 2 Mazdas now and will probably buy another.

My 2007 still throws P0021/22 codes for VVT issues even though I have changed the front one twice and the rear one once. I just ignore it as there seems to be not noticeable effect.

Lindy, do you have a check engine light on yours? In new york if you have a check engine light in your car even if it runs perfect you still fail the inspection and can't drive the car until it is corrected. Is california different. I thought that they were more strict than new york.