Mojo85

I have been suspecting my car has an oil leak, so the other day I parked it in the garage and put a big piece of white cardboard under the car.

This morning I see a drop puddle (1.5cm in diamter), the colour is exact same as the oil (compared it with the dipstick). Stupid me moved the white cardboard without looking to where it came from or attempt to see due to freaking out. But it appears to be it is just under the front side of the engine block and not where the oil filter is (unless its maybe streeming to the front)

Car has 50K km's. I'v been monitering the oil burning rate for a while now since the car has been just acquired little over a month now.


What could it possibly be? Oil Filter? Drain bolt? H22's are common for oil leaking?

From what I gathered, here are the following most likly to leak:

Cam Seal (passenger side)
Oil Filter.
Oil Cooler O ring
Drain Bolt not tight enough or bad shape.
Oil pan leaking.

Now I checked the cam seal and oil filter and o ring, I just put my hand at the bottom and felt around to see if there is any oil streams/drop, I can't really see whats under the filter due to the tight spot.

Suspecting its the oil ban/drain bolt since the drops are near the front of the car instead of the back, but I won't really know tell I left the car up and take it to a mechanic

Could it be anything else? and is there other known pleaces that oil leaks occour in?

I just want to get an idea of what it could be to asses the damage to my wallet...

thanx

Mojo

 

Moonraker

Mine also is dripping oil somewhere between the engine and the transmission. I'm suspecting the little oil pan gasket or the crankshaft oil seal.

jc836

Could be the drain bolt washer. This is a 1 time "crush" washer and some places don't do this 50 cent part. NEVER change the oil without putting a new one on. Easy to see if that is the location with your fingers and a rag. Another thing-run the engine up to normal temp and shut it back down. Put the paper under the car and see what happens.

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Killer_Vtec

Cam seal is def leaking..

my oil pan gasket started to leak around 100k

These are easy fix.. just bolts

Mojo85

thats what I did exactly, I realized it will only leak a certain amount only after the car has warmed up. After that it appears to stop leaking.

I don't see how it could be the cam shaft seal, the leak appears to be from the front of the block (near the bumper more rather than the firewall). But i'll definitly look for oil near it.

just waiting for the weather to lighten up so I can lift the car!!!

are those the long places that are 90% of the time where the oil leak is from? any other common ones?

Mojo85

ok, so I found out where the leak is, here is an image, sorry its not the best but I tried to find underside prelude shots but none...



is that the oil ban? I thought hte oil pan is more flat? so what do you guys think?

if anyone has some SH underside shots i'll gladly point out where the spot is. Thats the best pick i could take.

(toke it while I was on the passenger side infront of the wheel and stuck my hand with the camera to reach closer since hte car is not on a lift)

Mojo85

^ is it just me or is that the tranny? please tell me I am going crazy.....that will be some serious $$$$$$$$$$$

Too_Funny

I have this same problem. I basically change out every seal or gasket possible until I finally got rid of the leak. My last leak also came from the tranny area. I finally got in there to change out the seal when I did my clutch install. Its right behind the flywheel if you ever get a chance to do it.

Gerhard

I vote cam seal leaking onto the transmission and dipping off the transmission.

It could also be the oil or the crank seal on the transmission side... then dripping off the transmission.

Mojo85

ya, thats what I am guessing also. I doubt its the tranny since colour is identical to motor oil.

you said Cam seal, which is all the way at the top, didn't see any leaks there.

you also said 1. Oil and 2. Crack Seal

Crank seal? possible
what do you mean by oil? oil pan?

Gerhard

Sure... the oil pan has this crappy seal on the outter edge under the location when the crank attached to the flywheel.

It's very common to have leaks there.

It's also not unheard of to have a main seal leak right behind the flywheel.

You can get under there and remove the stiffener from the transmission, and see into and behind the flywheel area... if you see a spattering of oil... then you know that it's either motor oil, or transmission fluid (MTL).

Gerhard

importroadster

Your right, this must be a common problem because I just changed my oil yesterday and notice the oil (not ATF) leaking from the exact same place (between the engine and trans). I also noticed oil leaking form around the bottom of the distributor.
Does any body know how hard it is to replace a rear main seal?

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Mojo85

from what I heard, the trany must be taken out inorder to fix it (reach the part to be exact)....

i'm going to be checking my out tomorrow at the mechanic...i gotta warm up the credit card for this...

Gerhard

Yeah, if the main seal is worn out and leaking, you need to remove the transmission.

It's actually not to hard to do if you have air tools and a buddy to help you.

The secret is having a small drill bit and a machine screw:

You drill a hole into the main seal, then put the machine screw into the hole, and then pull!

The old seal will pop out, and then you install the new one.

I usually pack the spring around the seal with a little bit of grease so that it doesn't pop off when the seal is installed.