Symptoms
The car has 170k miles on it. My engine uses about a quart of oil every 1500-2000 miles. The last time I addressed the low oil, I noticed that there was oil pooling around the drivers side injectors. There is no evidence of oil flowing down beyond that immediate area to the ground or any other area of the engine.
diagnostic
Some reading online seems to indicate that this could be a leaking cam bearing seal. Do the symptoms and pictures seem to match this or is it something only a shop can determine?
Prognosis
From what I’ve read, resealing the cam carrier seems to be a pretty invasive and expensive job, and is prone to re-leaking later. Is this just an annoyance I can live with as long as I maintain oil levels (already do due to oil consumption) and soak up accumulated oil between trips? Or is this a ticking time bomb that will result in catastrophic failure sooner or later?
For context, I’ve driven ~2000 miles since noticing this last month (road trip). I often drive in remote areas of the western US and have several trips planned from California to Nevada and Wyoming this fall, so reliability is a major concern.
