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I am going to mention it to the dealer but wanted to see if anyone has any theories on what this might be if anything? I have never noticed any leaks under the car but this part (I believe it is the alternator) appears to be completely caked with oil. The part is located under the coolant expansion tank and a belt connects to it. It is the part that is closet to the ground and closet to the passenger wheel of all the parts connected to the belt if that makes sense. The caked oil looks like it is on the top side of the part. There is much more caked on oil on the driver side of the part. I did not see anything on the water pump which is right next to it. Picture of the top of the alternator taken from the middle of car. The alternator is completely covered in black in this picture.
Part with caked on oil I looked through here with a flashlight to get the caked on oil picture.
The dealer took a look at the oil sitting on top of my alternator and said they could not find a leak. They speculated that possibly the tech spilled some oil during a recent oil change and that’s how it could have gotten there. I’m skeptical that was the cause since the alternator is located on the other side of the engine bay from where oil is added. They cleaned up the oil and told me to bring it back if I see oil there again. I still have a year left on my cpo warranty so plenty of time for this to appear again and still be covered.
With the help of a borescope I tried to pinpoint the above oil leak. These pictures are taken from the top of the alternator looking up. Does anyone know if this looks like a leaking engine seal? Really couldn’t find any similar looking leaks using the forum search functionality.
So I showed the pictures in post 3 to the dealer and they kept the car for a full two weeks. I was told they put a dye in the oil and they drove it 30-50 miles a day. They did drive it nearly 300 miles in those two weeks. They concluded there was no leak. I have contemplated obtaining a 2nd opinion because of the pictures but what they did appears to be very thorough.
06-28-19, 07:25 AM
2013 oil leak?
