I have a 2001 Civic LX with 143K miles on it. The timing belt was replaced a little over 2 years ago (about 20K miles since then). Last week, I noticed oil leaks under the hood, so I brought my car to a Honda dealer. I regularly check the fluids, and the engine oil has always been enough. The dealer checked my car and said that, quoted from their written note, "car has bad oil leaks from behind timing belt, seals and oil gasket is leaking." They also said that the leaks need to be fixed ASAP because the oil can damage the timing belt. So they recommended to replace, quoted, "seals behind timing belt" ($530) and "oil pan gasket" ($298). I postponed the repair though since the cost is too high for me right now. I mainly use the car for grocery shopping, 1-2 times a week.

My questions are:
1) What are the "seals behind timing belt" which leak the oil and potentially can damage the timing belt?
2) How complicated is it to replace the "seals behind timing belt" (e.g. compared to replacing the timing belt)? Can a local mechanic do that job well? Which I suppose will cost me significantly less than what the dealer want to charge me.

Note that I monitor the oil level regularly and it seems the leaks do not affect the oil level noticeably.

 

A local mechanic can do this. It should be much less expensive. The parts are not expensive but the labor is like changing the timing belt again. Find someone who has worked on a Civic before. A lot of cars are more complicated to do the timing belt than the Civic and shops tend to quote a high price based on that.