2001 s60 2.4t oil leaking by right front tire

boston1shwn · Post by **boston1shwn** » 24 May 2015, 09:43

I woke up this morning and i found oil had leaked on to the ground by my right front tire. i looked underneath the car and i can see it dripping from the frame. when i parked last night it was dark out but now if you look down the street you can see a line of oil leading to my drive way. i pulled the oil dipstick and it reads full. the SERVICE LIGHT is on now. what could the problem be?????? I have a 2001 S60 2.4T. i just had the oil changed about 400 miles ago

Post by **velorider** » 24 May 2015, 15:32

I had a similar leak caused but the vvt seal.

Post by **JBC2565** » 24 May 2015, 18:44

Check the steering rack to rule it out. That was my oil leak on right side.

boston1shwn · Post by **boston1shwn** » 25 May 2015, 22:23

thanks for the suggestions

Post by **GBS** » 26 May 2015, 11:42

I'd jack car up and get belly pan off to take a look, it could be the filter or drain plug, which are easy fixes. If they do not look like a valid source for a leak, I'd continue by taking off the timing belt cover to get a better look at the front of the motor. I'm also assuming you'd be doing this yourself, it sounds like a solid leak so if you don't want to dig into it, I'd take it to a mechanic.

purplecat001 · Post by **purplecat001** » 26 May 2015, 14:10

I had the same thing happen just this past week. I could not trace the leak for an entire week. Then I found the leak - beneath the thermostat housing. Then of course my head goes to -> intake gasket leak, your head gasket is blown. Yet I never had my engine light come on, my temp gauge stayed at the same position it always has in the middle, never had any coolant or oil temp/pressure light come on and oddly enough, the night that happened was the day after I drove an hour home with my obdII software running the entire ride home and no codes were thrown, nor did anything seem super abnormal. The coolant ran a little hot so I would just turn on the heater and see it drop about 10degrees (maybe that is really hot after, IDK).

I digress, so I thought I had a blown head gasket. After some research I realized that it was actually under the the thermostat housing and that was a common problem - the housing gasket leaking. I looked at the "oil" again and dabbed it with a white tissue and saw ORANGE. I did the compression test via the coolant reservoir and the fluid remained blue (did not turn yellow or green). When I shut the car off - I heard hissing in the exact spot I was trying to trace to for an entire week which confirmed it. Keep in mind it did not hiss prior to the compression test, now that would have made it far too easy.

So now I am in the process of getting the parts ready to replace the thermostat, housing (if cracked), gasket, and just in case - a new intake manifold gasket.

Point is, my car is not new to me, this was a few days after I replaced the coolant reservoir but not the hoses, and I thought oil too. But it wasn't. Be sure to trace it before assuming. Especially since your oil is staying at the same level. My leak started heavy enough to cause it to drain out of my car to about 10 feet away to a lower area of the garage - to s*** its leaking like crazy!!! "Crazy" is when the hiss decided to show up.

boston1shwn · Post by **boston1shwn** » 26 May 2015, 23:18

i pulled the right front tire off and started the car and oil is coming out from behind the bottom pulley. i assume this is the front crank seal. how hard is it to replace the front crank seal? my oil level on the dipstick now reads half full.

Post by **GBS** » 27 May 2015, 08:39

It could still be the cam seals, I'd take the timing belt cover off and take a quick look back there to confirm. I just had a similar leak, though no as heavy, and saw oil in the area above the tensioner so leak was "higher" on the engine than crank. I just did my cam seals and its now sorted. I've heard that crank seals rarely fail but cam seals more commonly so I just did my cam seals.

Replacing the front seals was probably the most complicated thing I've done, take your time and read up and you'll get it though, one special tool is necessary to lock the cams and I built a seal press from a piece of PVC. I couldn't get my crank pulley off in my garage, and others have reported this too, so I'd take it to a shop and have them loosen it first, then tightened up again, so you're not stuck wheel and belt off trying to do it. It is not necessary to take pulley off to get timing belt off but would be if you're replacing seal.

I replaced the PCV system last year, having a clogged PCV can cause the cam seals to leak so might be time to replace that too. My fix did not stop the leak so replacing seals was necessary. I've also heard that if you don't replace PCV system but only do seals they might fail quickly again as you've fixed the symptom not the cause. Both these jobs are pretty big but substantial savings if you do it yourself, not to mention the satisfaction of accomplishment. Both are also well documented repairs but there's probably unique challenges and solutions in each case so set off some extra time, for me it was a full weekend total but spread over about a week.