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After climbing under the car recently to grease the propshaft UJ's, I had noticed rather a fresh oil leak on the engine sump. I could see it was actually coming from higher up the engine, so I investigated it.

First thing I did was remove the Acoustic engine cover, this is held on by 3 bolts 2 on the passenger side and 1 on the drivers side.

 Once it was removed I could easily see where the leak was coming from as the front face of the block and head where wet with fresh oil. The guilty party was the front camshaft Oil seal. Also remove the viscous fan cover, this is held by 4 "quick release" fasteners.

The front camshaft Oil seal is the big plastic round thing, it has an "o" ring round it and is simply a push fit into the front of the cylinder head

In the picture above I had already cleaned the face of the cylinder head, and all around the oil seal to prevent any dirt etc going into the cylinder head when the seal is removed.

To give yourself some more clearance, remove the 2 8mm bolts in the P clips that hold the wring loom in front of it, and move the loom out the way

The fact the Oil seal is a push fit, means it should be tight and snug in the hole, well I could "rattle" mine around a little, so it was obviously worn and allowing oil to leak past it.

Removing mine was VERY easy, just light finger pressure and out it popped. I then cleaned up the inner face where the seal sits.

Here is the new and old seal.

Why did it leak ?, well its been pushed in there for nearly 8 years, and if you look below its pretty obvious!!

Above you can see the "profile" of the "O" ring, the old one on the right is now flat, so it allowed the cover / seal to move about and leak oil past it.

To fit the new one, smear some clean engine oil around the "o" ring, and simply push it into place and that's it!!, nice easy fix!!. Replace the 2 bolts that hold the loom P clips in position, refit the fan cover, and the acoustic engine cover and job done!!