mikeintegra93

I'm faced with a dilemma to do or not do the oil pan gasket leak.


The leak is a minor one, but its frustrating and I just bought the car recently with only 77k miles on it.


The oil was changed back in late Feb, and it has only lost about a pinky fingernail's width down from the top notch on the dipstick.

Many have suggested to do it, but after talking to my neighbor who has his own CRX and much more experience says that I should maybe not change it.

He suggests that we will have to move the exhaust around to get to it, and trying to take the exhaust bolts off will cause damage that will require additional exhaust repairs.

I personally want to get it fixed, but the leak is minor and exhaust work isn't cheap.


Can anyone share experiences with their 1998 civic hatchback dx auto oil pan gasket change outs?

Are hatchback exhausts in the way enough where we will have to take the exhaust apart?

If it was you, would you change it out?

mikeintegra93

Alright civic enthusiasts,


My CRX lovin' buddy of mine and myself are going to do the job.

Here is what we figure we need:

1. spring bolts x2 between exhaust down pipe and exhaust
2. oil pan gasket
3. gasket between exhaust down pipe and exhaust
4. gasket between exhaust manifold and down pipe
5. kroyle lube
6. honda gasket sealer
7. bolts-nuts manifold to down pipe

Please comment and give insight if you have done this job before!

93egSLEEPER

The key is to not over-tighten the bolts/nuts.

slomofo

iTrader: (1)

This is an easy job, I've done hundreds of them, it'll take all of 15-20 minutes to do. If this is your first time, it'll probably take 30 minutes. If you don't have air tools and a way to get the car at least 15 inches off the ground, it'll take 40 minutes.

Remove 3 14mm nuts on exhaust manifold to b-pipe - 1 minute.
Remove 2 12/14mm spring nut/bolts - 2 minutes.
Remove 2 12mm nuts that hold b-pipe to bracket - 2 seconds
Remove exhaust b-pipe - 10 seconds.
Remove four 10 or 12mm nuts/bolts from flywheel dustcover - 20 seconds
Remove 12mm bolts on engine to transmission braces if present (30 seconds)
Remove engine-to-transmission braces and dustcover - (they'll fall off on their own)
Remove a bunch of 10mm nuts/bolts for oil pan - 3 minutes.
Remove oil pan, clean it up, put new gasket on, silicone, and bolt it back on - 10 minutes.
Install same way it came off - 5 minutes.

mikeintegra93

It took about 5 hours, and the parts were more expensive than I wanted them to be, but the job has been completed and the civic isn't leaking anymore.


We did it while the car was up on ramps, and my buddy and I used his air tools and rachet wrench that could be used in all directions. Both were extremely helpful.

I'd say the two toughest parts were scraping the old gasket off of the oil pan and C clamping down the new spring bolt connection to get them to fit on the exhaust.

I got all the parts for about $75 ($90 for fresh oil and filter), but it could easily cost over $100 if you don't shop around and use coupons/discounts.

It beats the heck out of taking it to the stealership though!