acketon

My mom bought a 94 EX Accord, vtech, SOHC, car has approx 180k, very clean.

ran car for about 8,000 miles no oil problems, used very little oil, about half a quart every 3,000 miles. Then all of a suddon it started losing a lot of oil.

My brother checked it out and the oil pan was loose, he checked the oil pan gasket and found that it was pinched and was leaking from one point. He replaced the oil pan gasket and the car was fine for about 4 months, then it started to drip, it doesn't really loose any significant oil, but it's dripping. we've moved across the country, so my brother can't fix it, my mom's taking it to a local mechanic, but i was hoping to find any opinons you guys have on what it could be. We came from Upstate, ny and had a really rough driveway. I'm thinking that it could be the oil pan is damaged, but any other ideas?


thanks

Mike813

hey a fellow ny'er! umm you can try buying those spray cleaners, and clean off all the nasty oil under the car first, then drive it around for like 15-20 mins and go under the car again and try to pinpoint where the drips are coming from.. usual spots are,

loose oil filter,
loose drain plug,
distributor seal,
head gasket leak,

these are the usuals in my knowledge, if theres more hope some other members can help, if its not that bad you can always buy a bottle of those stop oil leak things to hold for now if its a small problem, but get it fixed a.s.a.p

Atheist

FIlter could also be TOO tight

acketon

sorry forgot to put in, that before we left NY my brother checked it and it is leaking again from the same spot on the oil gasket.

this is why i think maybe the oil pan is damaged, the oil gasket shouldn't go out again it was replaced by him in september, right???

it's not coming from the filter, etc. definetely from the oil gasket. so should we just pay for a gasket, or should i tell her to do the pan too, or something else?

we already replaced a PCV valve, as we were told it could be that there was too much pressure but that didn't do it.

shrekz

make sure the pan isnt warped or damadged this will cause a leak everytime. if it is too badly damaged u might need to get a new one. what people usually do is pry it off and thats bad for it. need to kind of loosen it off with hammer and chisel type thing.

erikbrescher

There are a few other places it can be... none of which are good news...

First the spots:
- the rear main seal (if you have an automatic)
- the plate that the rear main seal attaches to
- the engine block (but you would have coolant issues)
- a trickle of oil coming from your valvecover gaket
- the oilpan gasket.

and... now my story

I went through an expensive mess this past month with an oil leak on my 92 Accord EX. I thought it was an oilpan gasket leak, so I tried to do it myself, but since He-Man bolted my exhaust to the headers i had to take it to a shop ($200, and he didn't even give me any vaseline to ease my pain)... after the work it still leaked.

The mechanic then cleaned up all the oil from the underside and put a green dye into my oil... he said it was coming from the rear main seal. :uch::

Another $530 later, I'm still leaking...

I finally said screw it and brought it to a specialist... he told me that there is a plate that sits between the rear main seal and the engine... and that there is a seal between the engine and that plate...

I said screw it, and i brought it to a dealer....

It turns out that the mechanic didn't do the oilpan gasket properly. He didn't change out the little metal collers... kinda like small metal washers that sit between the oilpan gasket and the motor. (oh yeah, another 300 bucks)

IF you think it's coming from the oilpan area, check that the collars aren't pinching the gasket... If that's the problem, you save yourself a thousand bucks by replacing the collars for a few cents.

Wish i knew all of this going into it, but oh well.

good luck... let me know how it goes

-Erik-