2002 s40 oil leaking after oil change

dejavu33 · Post by **dejavu33** » 23 Jul 2014, 00:20

Hello I have a question on what might be causing my 2002 s40 to leak oil out the bottom after a recent oil change? We have done a few repairs to this car since I purchased it in 2012 including, new spark plugs and coil packs, exhaust replacement, heater core replacement and compression fixes. Totaling around 5000$ which is also what I payed for the car. So all that to say I try to do the easy stuff at home where it usually cost a little less (as i am sure most of us like to keep the cost low for maintenance)! Unfortunatley it might have not been so helpful this time! So here it is, we changed the oil and filter (same as we have in the past with this car) on sunday. The car was not driven the rest of the day. My husband drove it to work on monday (his work is about 40 minutes each way). It seemed fine, when he got ready to go this morning (Tuesday) he said oil was pouring out the bottom! so it sat until he got home when he proceeded to buy another filter and try again. It is still leaking and we are not sure what is causing this to happen?? I am thinking o ring isn't good or something? Any ideas are much appreciated! and I will try to explain anything I can if need be..please help this girl figure this out!! thanks a million

mf70 · Post by **mf70** » 23 Jul 2014, 06:39

Clean everything and watch CLOSELY to see where oil is coming from. Maybe remove under shield & clean there too. It's coming from somewhere! Use paper towels to get surfaces shoroom dry first. I'd look around the PCV valve system.

Livens · Post by **Livens** » 23 Jul 2014, 08:30

You really need to climb up under it and find out exactly where the oil is coming from. If the oil change caused it its either the drain plug or the plastic filter housing. Drain plugs usually just drip a little if they aren't sealed properly, bad washer or not put on tight enough. The plastic filter housing with the o-ring is a little more complicated. When you put a new o-ring on the housing you need to oil it up a little, I also wipe some oil up into the pan side where the o-ring makes contact. If the o-ring and the oil pan side is dry the o-ring can get caught and roll out of its groove while you tighten it back on. Also you only need to snug the housing up, the oring is doing all of the sealing, not the housing. Too tight and you can crack or deform the housing causing a leak.

Of course it could also just be coincidence and one of your oil seals decided to blow out at a bad time. Easy to determine, if the oil looks like it is leaking down from above the pan somewhere...

Also what weight of oil are you using?

difflock54 · Post by **difflock54** » 23 Jul 2014, 20:13

It's also critical for the 'O' ring seal to be located in the correct groove casting on the plastic filter housing for a proper seal.
Be careful not to over tighten the housing as they can split when older and that could be a leak source.

dejavu33 · Post by **dejavu33** » 23 Jul 2014, 20:34

ok so here is the update: so when we cleaned it all up the oil appears to be coming from the plastic filter housing? Sorry, Im trying to relay what was told to me the best I can? Hopefully it makes sense to someone and I can get this taken care of. So if thats where the leak is coming from, any ideas why that is happening and what needs to be done to fix it?? also I use 10-30 synthetic oil. He did say he replaced the 'O' ring and made sure to not over tighten it, however he will look again to make sure? Hopefully this will help to figure out how to stop it. thanks again I always go to this forum when I am doing a home fix and appreciate the speedy responses from everyone.

Livens · Post by **Livens** » 24 Jul 2014, 07:10

I would pull the housing and check it for cracks, chech the ribs that form the o-ring groove too, and look at the o-ring for any defects. I usually clean out the groove that the o-ring sits in pretty good too. You can reuse the filter but I would put a new o-ring in and be careful when you reinstall the housing. Make sure the o-ring and the metal where the o-ring makes contact are well oiled. Then slowly screw the housing into place, you can see the o-ring being squished down and see that it stays in the groove. Bottom out the housing, wipe off any excess oil around it, top off the engines oil and start er up. If it going to leak you should see oil dripping down pretty quickly so keep an eye on it for a few minutes.

If the housing still leaks I would recommend ordering a new one, I think OEM ones are $30 or so.