flyjazz

I'm going have a shop change my oil pan gasket in the hope it will stop what has now become a serious leak. I would like a some of your opinions as to wether you think it's the rear main or oil pan. This is what I've observed so far. D16Z engine.

- There are no oil leaks when the car sits parked overnight. Zero,not a drop.

- There is oil residue all the way under the car to behind the resonator.

- Most of the oil pan gaskets bolts that I could get at were only finger tight.

- There is a faint smell of burning oil,seems to getting on the catalytic converter.

- There is a lot of oil on the side of the oil pan (transmission side).

- Almost no oil seems to leak out of the drain hole below the rear main.

- The outside of inspection plate opposite the oil pan(drain hole plate) is dry.

- No oil is leaking from above. Changed the leaking Vtec solenoid gasket.

- Recently leaked a quart after a long 240 mile high speed highway trip.

- Previously went through a quart after 1200 miles of city driving.

Can a leaking rear main seal leak down the side of the oil pan,yet not seem to come out of the drain hole underneath it? It's just strange that the inspection plate is dry on the outside but a 1/2 inch away the oil pan is very oily?

EL Vap133

Sounds like the oil pan gasket to me. How many miles do you have on the engine?

flyjazz

1995 Civic Coupe with 120,000 miles. Bought it recently and it's been leaking a long time as the oil residue underneath the underbody where the exhaust pipe/resonator/catalytic converter is located has almost turned to grease. Otherwise really like the car and it's in very nice condition.

EL Vap133

You know, if the bolts/nuts are as loose as you say they are, I bet the OG owner tried to replace the gasket himself and didn't torque/re-torque the bolts/nuts on the pan causing it to leak.

flyjazz

I tightened the loose bolts/nuts I could get at just a tiny bit as I did not want to spring a major leak by cracking the gasket. There was no way I could get at any of the bolts that were near the transmisson as there was no room to get at them with the socket. The oil pan gasket clearly needs changing and I'm just hoping to get lucky and not have to have the transmisson pulled to get at the rear main seal. A local Honda dealership will be changing it as I want a OEM gasket put in and I figure they do a lot of them so they should have the technic down to a science. Besides,they claim that they will back the work for one year which is valid at all Honda dealerships if I have a problem with the gasket again.

EL Vap133

Once the gasket heats up it might change shape, have them replace the oil pan gasket because it is way cheaper than the main seal.

flyjazz

I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for sharing your opinion.