Q: I have an oil leak on a2000 s40 it appears to be coming from the solenoid for the can sensor and the valve cover I've replaced th

Locating oil leaks can be challenging. There are a few common culprits with every car. The general rule is always look up above where you see the oil. In your case, there are at least three distinct places that commonly leak oil. It sounds as though you have replaced the variable valve timing solenoid. A camshaft position sensor is not a solenoid. It’s important to differentiate between a solenoid and a sensor. They are distinctly different devices.

With your car, it could be the valve cover, camshaft seal or camshaft position sensor. Valve covers will leak at corners, seams or when the gaskets get hard. Camshaft seals are rubber just like your valve cover gasket, but are round with the camshaft spinning inside of them. When they get hard, they will begin to leak. They are located under the top timing cover, behind the camshaft gears.

Less likely, but possible. If you don’t see an external leak above, your crankshaft seal could be leaking. Sometimes, when the crank seal leaks, the timing belt can spread the oil leaking from it all over the inside of the timing cover.

As with any oil leak, often times we need to do some disassembly to find the source of our leak. If you should need help locating your oil leak, I recommend the following inspection to be performed by a certified technician from YourMechanic; Oil/Fluid leak inspection.

Good luck!