Oil Leak Location? Rear Main Seal? Oil Cooler?

Post by **kickin_it** » 28 Oct 2011, 03:27

I know I have had somewhat of a leak for the past year probably, well it's come time to try and diagnose and possibly a DIY Fix with the help of this fantastic forum. I was replacing my J-hose yesterday and had the car parked in the garage. I decided to take some pictures of the leaks to see if it was at all possible to tell from the drip locations on the garage floor to see if someone had similar leaks and the location they had their leaks, I am assuming leaks are oil based on smell. The car was in the garage for no more than 2 hours.

The first picture is from the right side looking underneath the vehicle. The red circles show the drops of oil.

: oil_leak_1.jpg (75.01 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

I then decided to try and get a better "overhead" shot and taped and outline of the front wheel locations as well as the bumper.

: oil_leak_2.jpg (58.68 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

View from the side.

: oil_leak_3.jpg (76.83 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

Both drips seem to have the same smell but were slightly different in consistency and color. The first picture is the spot located more to the rear of the vehicle. (Rear Main Seal?)

: oil_leak_4.jpg (56.39 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

This is a picture of the spots located toward the front of the vehicle. (Oil Cooler Line?)

: oil_leak_5.jpg (55.28 KiB) Viewed 6335 times

After reading through the forums and seeing some of the common problems, the best I could come up with is that the spots up front are possibly Oil Cooler leaks and the two in the rear are the rear main seal. Based on the pictures of the drip locations, does anyone have any opinions? Is there a "easy" surefire way of checking where the leaks are coming from? Thanks for reading, and appreciate any comments or questions.

Post by **kickin_it** » 28 Oct 2011, 04:09

Could the cause of the(se) leaks be a clogged PCV system? I will perform the smoke-in-the-dipstick-tube test after running the S70 for a bit.

Post by **taxi** » 28 Oct 2011, 04:58

I dont think its your rear main seal, but get under the car and look up, and take your time. If that doesnt help, clean the engine and look again!
I will try to find my pictures of leaking RMS, so you can hopefully rule that out.

Post by **precopster** » 28 Oct 2011, 06:31

Oil runs just like water to the lowest point along multiple pathways. Clean it well and have a look at the engine after a long drive.

Post by **jblackburn** » 28 Oct 2011, 08:12

I used to have a picture of the weep hole in the transmission, but I can't find it.

Look closely where the engine meets the transmission and you'll see a tiny hole between them. If oil is leaking BETWEEN that hole, then it is your RMS leaking. If it's just covering the transmission all over, but that area is dry, it's coming from above.

If it's reaching the ground, my key suspect would be a camshaft seal, on the rear of the engine. It's directly behind the camshaft sensor that's to the rear of the distributor cap.

All my cam seals have leaked at some point. You'll see something messy like this if it is.

Post by **kickin_it** » 28 Oct 2011, 12:32

Thanks for the help. I will get her up on jacks at some point so I can give myself some room and go to work. I hear a lot about the clogged PCV system being an issue on high mileage cars, should I look into this as well and just locate the damn leaks and go from there?

Post by **jblackburn** » 28 Oct 2011, 12:38

Yes, absolutely. Look for the telltale signs - puffing smoke out of the dipstick or positive pressure up the tube that will inflate a glove.

No smoke/pressure, you should be good.

alexk243 · Post by **alexk243** » 28 Oct 2011, 13:47

I would clean your engine with a degreaser, wash the underside and then after it dries run it for a bit. Once its cool and clearly leaking again I would jack it up and see if you can trace were the fresh leak is coming from by looking underneath the car.

Post by **kickin_it** » 28 Oct 2011, 19:25

Bad and worse news. The dipstick tube has a considerable amount of smoke coming out of it AND I have water/moisture in the oil, dipstick looked like thick cappuccino. I will post a short video later. I think I am screwed, expecting the worse.

Post by **taxi** » 28 Oct 2011, 21:07

Dont panic, if the coffeedrink is on the dipstick only, I consider it normal, it happens. You can panic when the rest of the oil changes into something else, check the filler cap.
And if the dipstick pops up on its own I would worry about pcv system, if it just smokes that means you should look at it, at least.