Leaking/dripping oil question - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

BenG · 10-13-2003, 04:23 PM

On an engine, are there a lot of places that could leak oil from? Is it only the oil pan, oil drain plug, head gasket, distributor o-ring, valve cover gasket, and all the seals where the pulleys come out of the engine block?

I've discovered that I have an oil leak and I want to know where I would have to look to check all the possible locations of the leak.

Deep · 10-13-2003, 06:28 PM

Have your engine cleaned or do it yourself. Give it a few days of normal driving and then look for wet spots under your engine and follow it up until you find the source. Keep in mind that oil flows downwards. Before you do anything, you might wanna run your fingers over your drain plug to see if its wet, if so check to see if it was tightened and then go ahead and clean your motor.

BenG · 10-13-2003, 06:40 PM

It's dripping from somewhere above the drain plug. That's the first thing I checked, and the oil pan was wet with oil ABOVE the plug, so i'm sure it's not that.

It also only seems to drip when it's parked on an incline with the nose up and the tail down. So either it's dripping right out of the oil pan gasket (i sure hope that's where it is) or it's dripping from farther up the engine and pooling on the block somewhere until it's on an incline, then it pours out of the crevice.

Didn't want to get my engine cleaned just before winter, but I guess i'll have to now...

wunderboy · 10-14-2003, 08:53 AM

Main crank seals? It could be the seal in the oil-pump housing up front.

Nick · 10-14-2003, 08:58 AM

if its a v6, then the valve cover gaskets are a usual suspect

i did mine when i first got my car (when it was 10 years old)

BenG · 10-14-2003, 09:16 AM

It's an inline 4 5sfe on a 96 Camry. I've been driving it pretty hard lately with a lot of passing and high RPMs (5000 or so) and the oil problem only appeared recently. The distributor O-ring was replaced about 6 months ago because it was leaking oil from there before.

thespud · 10-14-2003, 01:22 PM

I'm not sure about that particular engine, but i know that most of the toyota engines i have worked with, 4's and 6's, dont actually have any gaskets on the oil pan, only sealant.

It could just be that the sealant has become too hot and corroded away in one spot. The other usual suspect is the valve cover gasket, as Oldman suggested, as most of these are rubber and have a tendancy to corrode.

I would srongly recomend that you de-grease your engine before checking anything, however, because it could be coming from numerous places. Mine had the same problem on opposite slopes and it turned out to just be the valve cover seal had been corroded at the front of the engine.

BenG · 10-14-2003, 01:31 PM

Alright...thanks for all the advice...seems like i'll have a clean engine for the winter no matter what then! haha...

I'll clean it and chk it out and post my findings. Thanks all!

BenG · 10-21-2003, 10:58 PM

Got my gasket fixed today. Would have done it at home, but since I've never opened an engine before, I didn't wanna mess anything up. Anyhow, no sludge which is good. The guys at T-Lex said that it was really clean. Here are some pics... Is the yellow/orange/brown stuff oil that has become bonded to the metal like varnish?

Deep · 10-22-2003, 08:17 AM

Varnish is exactly what it is.

BenG · 10-22-2003, 08:23 AM

Is it detrimental to the engine? Would engine flush help to break it down and clean it off?