Well, its been awhile, but time to do some work on the R50! My dad has had what we thought to be an issue with excessive oil consumption for awhile, but I finally had the car on the lift for the first time ever last week and there's quite a covering of new and old oil all around the engine and suspension components, so I'm guessing our oil problems are stemming from a failed valve cover gasket.

I'm going to be ordering at least a valve cover gasket and new spark plug tube seals soon, but is there anything else I should be getting while I'm tearing the valve cover off? The car has 181k miles now. I've heard I should grab a PCV valve as well.

 

Replaced the valve cover gasket and PCV valve yesterday. Crappy iPhone pics:






The operation went pretty smoothly. The old gasket didn't look bad, but it was very stiff by comparison to the new one, and that's all it takes for leaks to begin.

Also checked around the car again because the car was in for the P/S recall last week and the tech there made some additional repair recommendations.

- Noted several engine oil leaks.
- Remove and replace the P/S upper engine mounts(frame mounted and strut tower mounted). Found the rubber has separated and doesn't secure the engine.
- Remove and replace the D/S and P/S front upper strut mounts. Found the rubber has separated.
- Complete an engine oil and filter change. Found oil level 2+ liters low.
- Remove and replace the power steering pressure line(pump to rack), return line(rack to reservoir) and necessary shareware/gaskets/o-rings. Found the lines leaking.
- Remove and replace the D/S license plate bulb, P/S front fender flair peanut bulb and P/S rear fender flair light fixture(found it has burned it's socket housing).
- Remove and replace the front and rear wipers. Found the rubber torn.
- Remove and replace the P/S front shock absorbed. Found it has leaked out it's dampening fluid.

I'm hoping I've fixed the oil leaks with the valve cover gasket, but we'll see about that in the coming weeks. I checked out the upper engine mounts and they both looked fine to me. The front one has some minor cracking around the bracket, but it's difficult to tell if that is indicative of sagging or not. We will not be replacing the mounts. The upper strut mounts are indeed torn, and I was quoted almost $1,000 just for those 2 mounts and labor. Ridiculous! I'm going to be buying a set of OEM Lemfoerder's from PelicanParts for $71 today or tomorrow. The oil does indeed need to be changed and it is low due to the valve cover gasket. The lines aren't leaking terribly, I haven't ever had to put P/S fluid in the reservoir as far as I can remember. The bulbs he mentioned are indeed burned out, so I'll buy those plus the socket he mentioned from ECS. The wipers are over a year old now, so they're due for replacement anyway. None of the shock absorbers looked like they've been leaking at all to me. We will not be replacing them.

Just want to keep this thread updated. More to come when I get the new stuff in.

 

Orders placed, thanks ECS and PelicanParts!

 

Welcome, let me know if you need anything else,