oil leak problem
 

Ok so yesterday i checked my dipstick and the oil level was low. There is a small drip coming from under the car. I took the car in for an oil change today and I asked for them to check where the leak was coming from. He said it was the front seals....and said that the timing belt was probably soaked so i would have to get that changed too. The oil isnt pouring out or anything...its a small drip...and under the car looks oily because the wind probably blew it around. When i got my axle changed back in may of 2004 the same mechanic said there was an oil leak but we I never told him to check it out. I got the oil changed with mobil high mileage oil 10w-30. Burgandybeast ( steve) saw the leak yesterday too...he didnt look under the car but he said he didnt look bad. Now im assuming that it has been this way for a long time now and there have been no problems. The guys said it would be a huge job and said it would be about 4-6 hours labor. 6 hours labor comes out to 500 dollars...i dont even know how much the parts are. It would take me 2 or 3 months to get all the money together. I talked to my mom about it.....shes sick and shes been telling me to sell the car for a long time now. I feel horrible having to ask her for money with her being sick and everything. I feel horrible about this whole thing.
:(

As long as you keep replacing the missing oil you should be able to keep driving it until you can afford to do the work. Mine was probably bad for at least 3 years before I replaced it.

I'm definitley willing to do that. I just cleaned under the car where the drip was coming from. Stayed dry...not like the oil was continuously coming out or anything. Its just a drip. The way the mechanics made it sound it was like the car could have caught fire because the oil was on the exhaust too...i think because the wind blowing it. Ive heard of high mileage oil stopping leaks...i'm praying this will happen for me. What do you think about the timing belt being soaked? I mentioned before that the leak has been present for a while with no ill effects. I just havent taken notice to it i guess.

Another drip seems to be coming from a small hose near the radiator. We noticed this also when we installed my tranny cooler in the end of august. The fluid on that hose is brown like oil.

I wouldn't worry about the timing belt. Mine was fine when I changed it. (same time as the seals)

As for the other leak, which side of the radiator? (pics would help)

Drivers side of the rad..kinda almost the middle of the rad i guess. And i dont have a camera so i will try to get my friends digital camera. How much did you pay for the front seals?

Re: oil leak problem
 

Well, at some point you need to decide whether it's worth keeping the car. Sometimes it isn't. I know it's a hell of a car, but it doesn't fit everybody's life. That's only going to become increasingly true for an increasing number of people as these cars get older and require more care to keep on the road.

I got under the car and cleaned up all the oil with a towel. I checked an hr later and it was still dry and clean. I drove to work and parked it in the lot where it was dry pavement. Came back out 4 hours later and nothing was on the ground. I'm going to dump some engine restore into the oil filler tomorrow. Anyone think thats a good idea?

Sometimes the oil additives will counteract each other. The high mileage oil already has seal conditioner in it, I would just leave it alone. More additives may do more harm than good.

Yeah im going to leave it alone. Thanks for mentioning the high mileage oil to me...i think its going to work well. Tomorrow when theres light i will get under the car again and check to see how it is.

Guys, there is something i cannot understand, why you never wash out underneath you engine from oil, drive it around a little bit and then reckeck from where the oil is leaking? really this is what i did with my car... i fixed all leaks!

keep driving it until some oil appears!! but a towel is not good enough, u need pressure water to get into the tight places...

I agree. If you use high mileage oil, any more additives will probably do more harm than good.

-Chike

I took the car out to school this morning and just got back. Drive is about 20 miles round trip. I got under the car in my driveway and its dry...no dripping anywhere except for some water dripping down because of all the water in the road. I have no engine undercover as i removed it when we installed my tranny cooler. Under the car just looks greasy as it always has. Little sigh of relief :rolleyes: . And no im not going to add anything...i just wanted to see what people thought. What exactly is so good about the high mileage oil anyway? I used Mobil high mileage 10w -30.