I picked up my 04 wrx the other day only to discover it has an oil leak coming from what I believe to be the valve cover by the turbo. If it is the valve cover how difficult of a job am I looking at?

 

Welcome and can you take some pictures, it could be the turbo seal. How many miles do you have on the car and is the car on a stock turbo?

 

All stock except for a Cobb intake and magnaflow cat back and 3in dp the car isn't with me but it doesn't look to be coming from the turbo. It appears to be more in front of the turbo between engine and fender. And the car has 165k on it. I'm new to the boxters but am a trained engine mechanic. It's got an oil residue on the engine and what I'm assuming to be the valve cover and down to the subframe on that side.

 

check the hose that is under the turbo those tend to leak..its going to be hard to see since its under the turbo..best way is to lift the car enough to fit under and look under the turbo

 

I bet it's your oil separator plate gasket. $6 at dealership and easy to replace

 

Ok so where is the separator plate and how do I change it? My nearest dealership is over 100 miles away and doubt ill be able to get that at a parts store so I want to 100% verify that is where it's leaking. If the dealership was closer wouldn't be that big of a deal but being 100 miles 1 way don't eat to spend more money than I have to

 

Bump

 

So along with the oil leak it apparently likes to over heat on long trips.

 

Overheating could be a number of things, but as you likely know, head gasket would be the one you don't want it to be, but better check your radiator and hoses. The stock radiators definitely are likely to have issues by 165K. When I did my timing belt at 105K, when they went to disconnect the hoses, they found mine cracked at the top just waiting for a bad time to fail.

leaking on one side at that mileage is a good chance of it being the valve cover gasket on that side. I have 118K on mine and just did them because they were both leaking.

 

That's the area it's coming from

 

I just had both sides valve covers replaced. Very tight space to get your hands and tools to remove them. My high oil consumption is gone now.