Stupid oil pan leak

[TomQuick]

So I spend six straight days under my car (on and off between work), change the rear main, oil pan gasket, one lower ball joint, one CV shaft, flywheel, clutch and pressure plate, throwout bearing, front struts, all four springs, bearings and hubs in the front, new calipers, new rotors, and get everything back together and working great except it's going through a crap load of oil. It wasn't going through oil before I fixed it, pretty well meaning that I screwed it up somewhere. The only options really are that I botched the rear main seal, or I botched the oil pan.

The oil pan was missing a bolt, and now that I think about it, I never got the new bolt for it. There is oil all over the frame member, and the exhaust pipe, so I'm pretty confident that it is the oil pan that I messed up. I guess considering how much work I did, having a leak in the oil pan gasket isn't that bad, but it is a pain to have to go redo work that I already did once.

[DJ metadelic]

i know the feeling of repairing and replacing, only to find a few other issues. it's what made me almost give up on this car...i also need a oil pan gasket and rear main seal.

cars suck.

[TomQuick]

Never give up, just learn from your mistakes. I know it's my own mistake, and I know I have some options for fixing it. I think I'm likely going to get a new gasket, pull it all apart, clean it good, goo the new gasket up with silicone on both sides, and reinstall torqued to spec, with the missing bolt replaced. The silicone on both sides of the new gasket should ensure a leak free seal.

[HondaGuy1212]

Dang. That's quite the maintenance you have done. How hard is it to replace the rear main seal? And, is it true that it's easier to replace it when the trans it out?

[TomQuick]

The rear main seal isn't that hard, but getting to it is a biatch. The trans has to come out to do it. That means you tear down the front suspension on both sides. I've read that you can get away with only removing the lower ball joints, and pulling the CV shafts, but I went ahead and removed the outer tie rod ends, and upper ball joints, took off the brakes (since I was replacing them anyway) and removed the whole knuckle.

With the knuckles off, I sanded them down and gave them a good coat of black paint. I took the struts out since I was replacing them, but it isn't necessary. I also sanded down the strut forks, and painted them.

On the passengers side you need to remove the radius rod in order to get the trans out. Disconnect the battery (I went ahead and removed it for more room to work), remove the air intake tube. Disconnect the shift cable(s) and unbolt their support from the rear of the trans. Remove the battery cables from the engine, disconnect the wiring from the starter, and remove the starter. If it's a standard, you need to unbolt the slave cylinder, and the brackets for the tube going to it. The manual says to disconnect the rubber hose from the slave cylinder tube, but I left that all together, and just moved it up and out of the way a bit. If it's an automatic, disconnect the trans fluid lines from the radiator. Drain the transmission fluid (both auto and manual). Unbolt, and remove the "Jack Shaft" that goes to the drivers side CV shaft. Unhook wiring from reverse light switch, and VSS.

With that all done, support the engine with a bit of wood under the oil pan, and a jack, and remove the passengers side transmission mount (I had a heck of a time getting that thing out of the way). Unbolt the trans to engine bolts, including the two that go through the rear engine mount. With all that done, you should be able to tilt the engine down a bit toward the passengers side, and with the transmission supported with a jack, you can wiggle it loose from the engine, and lower it out of the engine bay.

Yay, unbolt the torque converter (auto) or clutch (standard), and remove the flywheel. Remove the jack and wood supporting the engine (it will be OK now that you've taken the weight of the trans off it) and drain the oil pan. Remove the oil pan, then remove the bolts holding the rear cover on, and carefully use a punch to drive the rear main seal out. Then new seal should be installed using a seal driver, and feeler gauge to set it's depth in the cover. I had neither so I covered the seal with a rag to protect it, and used the plastic handle of a screw driver to carefully tap it in, working around the seal a lot to keep from twisting it. There was a visible line of discoloration inside the rear cover which showed clearly where the old seal had been, so I just carefully placed the new seal in the same place.

Goo up the cover mating surface with sealer, and reinstall. Clean up the oil pan, goo it up with sealer, slap on the gasket (no gasket for the rear cover) and reinstall (might want to use sealer on the engine side of the gasket too). Put the wood and jack back under the engine, and jack it up just a bit to take the load off the engine mounts. Install flywheel (great opportunity to switch to a lightweight flywheel, so I did). Install torque converter, or clutch (the whole reason I tackled the job in the first place, so I've got an exedy stage one now), put the trans back in, and bolt it in place. Install the trans mount, and bolt back on all the other bits you removed.

With every thing else apart, this is a great time to do wheel bearings, and the ROH conversion, plus big brakes!

[Phate]

Been there with the leaks, hopefully have finally fixed the last of them. One thing that helps with the oil pan gasket is coating it with heavy grease to stick it onto the pan before bolting the pan back onto the block. The grease also helps to seal it a bit more. Retighten bolts after a few heat cycles, blah blah blah.

Another thing to check is whether or not there is oil on the outside of the oil filter. That would likely mean that your oil pressure sending unit is leaking. Mine has been for a long time, finally replaced it with a sender for a gauge ($26 harbor freight electronic oil pressure gauge for the win). Shitloads of thread seal tape, which was then coated in RTV silicone to make it not leak.

As amusing as it was to roll into toll booths on the thruway, and spew oilsmoke, its great to have the car not smell like something's burning.

[evil_demon_01]

Make sure you torque the sump bolts up.
The new gasket will always leak if you don't.

How much oil are you actually losing? Best advice is to clean the whole area off and go for a short drive.
Then have a look to see where the oil is coming from.

[TomQuick]

Yeah, had the leaking pressure switch last year, dealt with that already. Replaced the valve cover gasket, and plug tube seals last year as well, when I had the timing belt done. Replaced the distributor shaft seal, both internal and external a few weeks back when I was leaking oil out of the dizzy.

I used silicone sealer to glue the gasket to the oil pan, but I didn't use any on the surface between the gasket and the block. Worse, by the time I got to that, I was tired, angry, covered with grease and oil, and in no mood to set the torque wrench and torque them, so I just fudged it. Add in the fact that one of the bolts is missing, and it's no freaking wonder it leaks. I had intended to go buy the new bolt, and then torque them all properly before I drove it, because that is just the way I do things, but then situations came up that required me to be able to drive the car, so I did, and then it kind of slipped my mind that I had never torqued the bolts properly, and that there was still one missing.

As for how much oil leaks out, it depends on how much oil I put in Seriously, it seems to leak down to right around the add one quart mark, perhaps just a tiny bit lower, then stay there. If I put the quart in, it will promptly leak back out, but it doesn't seem to really go much past that add one quart mark

I got a new gasket today, and a new bolt, plus a tube of sealer, oil filter, and more oil. I've got a bit over 1000 miles on it since the last oil change, and I'm not going to mess around keeping the old filer, or trying to drain and reuse the oil. The weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday look pretty good, so one of those two days I'll get under it and change the gasket again. This time around I'll have all the bolts, and I'll torque them properly, then do so again after a few days of driving.

After I deal with the oil pan, there really isn't much left that can leak oil, I think I've pretty well replaced it all, unless the cam seal starts leaking . . .

[JaberCB7]

wow, never knew oil pan was this troublesum.

[TomQuick]

I've NEVER had an oil pan leak after changing the gasket before, and I've been working on cars for ~25 years, but then again I've never put one back together with a bolt missing either . . .

[benjiaccord]

I know for a fact my car leaks oil from my oil pan...i've seen the spot. Add that to my long list of maintenance I need to do

I've actually had to sign a release form before when I went to have my oil changed (I have someone else do it during the winter so I don't have to crawl underneath it on the cold concrete) they said my oil pan has all sorts of dents and stuff in it and they wanted to make sure I understood that before they started the work...guess that's what I get for my car being low huh?

edit: edited for spelling

[TomQuick]

I got under mine for a few minutes yesterday. I didn't have time to pull the pan, but I did replace the missing bolt. It doesn't really look as if that is where the oil is coming from. It looks like the problem is that I didn't use sealer on the top of the gasket where it wraps around the rear main cover area, and it's leaking there. Not from the rear main, but from the pan seal around the cover.

You aren't the only one that has a shop change the oil in the winter. I usually get it done once by the shop, in either Jan, or Feb. The rest of the year I can deal with it, but the middle of the winter there is no way I'm jacking that thing up in the snow and ice, and then laying on the ground and crawling under it!

[TomQuick]

I think I've finally reached the end of this story. About a week ago now, I tore the oil pan back off. I had used sealer on both sides of the gasket, however there were a couple of small spots along the rear edge of the pan where I hadn't gotten all the old crap off. In addition, there were two blobs of silicone that had formed where the rear cover is bolted on, and they weren't allowing the oil pan to seat fully against the rear cover. I spent some time under the car with a scraper, and removed those little bits of silicone, then cleaned the entire rail good, finishing up with a paper towel soaked with brake parts cleaner.

I then did the oil pan rail with a scotch brite pad on the drill, and cleaned everything up with paper towels and brake parts cleaner. When everything was clean, I applied silicone to the pan rail, smoothed it out, and laid down the gasket. I then applied another layer of silicone on top of the gasket, smoothed that out, and installed the pan.

It's been about a week now, I see no signs of new oil leakage, and the oil level isn't going down any more, so I think I can say that I've got this problem beat.

[tm123]

so bringing this thread back from the dead
i have this problem now

i replaced my oil pan gasket ,RTV on the underside (gasket-pan) and have a SEVERE leak from the transmission side, half quart on start up!

this half circular shape thing that covers the transmission gave me the biggest trouble. i couldnt figure out how it went on before or AFTER the oil pan

i put it on after but it wasnt right its just on there

anyways i started my car and my friend quickly told me to turn it off because it was raining from that side

I CANNOT figure out what i did wrong will someone please help

[evil_demon_01]

so bringing this thread back from the dead
i have this problem now

i replaced my oil pan gasket ,RTV on the underside (gasket-pan) and have a SEVERE leak from the transmission side, half quart on start up!

this half circular shape thing that covers the transmission gave me the biggest trouble. i couldnt figure out how it went on before or AFTER the oil pan

i put it on after but it wasnt right its just on there

anyways i started my car and my friend quickly told me to turn it off because it was raining from that side

I CANNOT figure out what i did wrong will someone please help

Did you torque the sump bolts up?

Also was it leaking before you did the sump gasket?
Sounds like the gasket hasn't sealed properly (btw you don't need to put sealant the entire way around the gasket, only need it on the ribbed piece)