jimisbell

A week ago I had my oil changed.
Before the change, I had no leaks. Now is is leaking.
Is there an obvious place to start looking? besides the drain plug? I haven gotten under it yet.
It is loosing several oz on the garage floor after a run. It is clean honey colored oil so I know its the oil I just put in!!!

paulo57509

With the undercover in place, it's hard to tell where the oil is coming from. The oil leaks onto the undercover and runs.

Most likely, it's either the drain plug or the oil filter. It might also be spillage from the refilling operation.

If the undercover is still in place, remove it, clean off the area (best you can), run the engine and observe. Don't drive it as this might blow the oil around and make the leak origin hard to pinpoint.

jimisbell

too late, of course I drove it....a week....before I started seeing the oil. Now I have to drive it back to where the oil was chabged...another 20 miles!

chuyrobles

An oil leak - I would check this myself. If it’s a loose drain plug, it will leak slowly until it gets to the last thread, and then the bolt falls off and oil will gush out. Find a way to check the obvious before you drive the car again. Check drain plug, oil filter, and oil cap. Beyond that, it could be an oil pan or timing cover gasket leak, or other leaking component like an oil line, oil pressure sender, solenoid, etc … but check the obvious first.

Bocatrip

If it were right after an oil change, the oil filter would be the first place I'd look. Leaking from the drain plug would have to be either, it was cross threaded and stripped the thread, or just not tightened. Good luck.

jimisbell

I just got back from Minit Man Oil and the kid there said they did not put on a new gasket under the drain plug and the old one was shot. Whether that is true or not I have no way of telling. But he was very sure it would not leak anymore. The loss of oil over 4 weeks was less than 4 oz so it was a small leak.

However I learned a few things:
1) The under pan does not go under the oil drain so the under pan is NOT full of oil.
2) The oil dripping out is as clean as if it came from the can. Pure honey. On a 20 year old car, that is a testament to the Brand
3) The kid at the oil change place doesn't know there is no pressure in the oil pan and asked me to start it to see if it leaked...LOL
4) I haven't checked my oil since the day I got the car. No need to with modern cars. Now, I will check it every now and then. Back in the 50s you checked the oil every gas up and you changed it when it was down a quart...or maybe two (3K miles)....Cars today don't burn oil!!

I guess I dated myself when I spoke of oil cans. Now it is a plastic bottle.....

jimisbell

I purchased a spare oil pan after I saw how hard he torqued the plug! I got a steel pan with gasket and plug with washer for just $73 and I figure that is cheap insurance when he strips the plug on the aluminum pan. Thats less than I pay for the oil change and this car is going to last forever. I Hope

bradland

Maybe someone else will chime in to confirm but I’m pretty sure you have to either raise the engine or drop the sub frame to swap out the oil pan.

jimisbell

[QUOTE=bradland;11795913]Maybe someone else will chime in to confirm but I’m pretty sure you have to either raise the engine or drop the sub frame to swap out

The goal wasnt to make it easy, just to have the parts available when it happened 2 years from now and I needed the car. The garage that strips it will do the labor, not me.