Hello Just noticed oil on my driveway. Looks like the problem is in the back of the 4 cylinder engine closer to the passenger side. Any Ideas? View is lying on the driveway looking up at back side of engine. See pics
Although it might be the distance and angle, your first picture looks like air conditioner condensate as opposed to oil. If you rub a paper towel on the drive, can you get a brown stain on it? If that's oil, you either just had it changed and the shop was really sloppy or have an emergency repair on the way, start checking/adding oil daily. The other pictures look like the leak has been slow and ongoing (lots of dirt embedded and damp, yet not really 'wet'). Could be from leaky valve cover gasket, timing chain cover gasket, or even a cam shaft plug. None of these should be particularly expensive to have replaced. Good luck in identifying the problem and the repair.
Thanks I did some research and it is time to change the valve cover gasket and spark plugs the most likely culprit here. So will try that next week,
if it made a puddle that fast it shouldn't be hard to find... if its oil rather than a/c condensate keep a close eye on it...that big of an oil leak will kill the engine in three days
It is oil so I put some oil in because the stick was at the low mark. I used 10-30 which is a little heavier than recommended due to the age of the car. Today, the mark on the driveway is still there which means it must be oil and it felt like oil. However it did not leak oil yesterday and today. I just got an idea. First thing I will do is check all the bolts on the valve cover to see if any are loose, this can easily happen after a few years since they are never tightened down to tight so the valve cover does not warp.
replace the drain plug/metal washer and check the sensors/oil pressure gage in the block. and where the dipstick seats into the block. how long did take to make this puddle?
Very quick I was going out and forgot something so I just went down the street and came back. I did not pull in all the way and parked at an angle with the engine running. So I ran in the house and ran back out and left. When I got back from an errand, I noticed the puddle. Very strange since it is not doing it yesterday or today? Well I tightend the valve cover gasket bolts about an 1/8 th of a turn. They were not loose, they were frozen but after cracking them, they did tighten down a tad. I like to try the simple items first instead of spending hundreds of dollars for all kinds of parts and labor that I might not need!! So we will see? Thanks
Good idea, I may try that today. Thanks Yesterday after tightening the valve cover gasket, I drove approx 30 miles and checked the engine. The oil pan had wet oil on the bottom forming a droplet. See yellow arrow in pic So I wiped it and drove 30 miles back and another droplet formed. Not as bad as it was, maybe now the oil pan bolts need to be tightened? I will clean it and check See pics
Hello Got the tarp out and de-greased it and tightened up the oil pan bolts a tad. Also loosened and then re-tightened the oil drain bolt. It seems promising! We will see. By wiping up the greasy spray with some paper towl off the tarp, I kept the driveway cleaner. I really suggest to loosening the bolts then tighten them evenly so too much torque is NOT applied to break the heads!
No drops of oil in the driveway over last night! Good sign - so far $4.69 for the spray can of degreaser! It must have been the recent hot weather and a little long term shrinkage of the gaskets that caused the issue.
