nico08

2007 Honda Accord 4 Dr Sedan
110,000 miles
V6 engine


Hi. I got oil changed a few months ago. At that time, the mechanic said that he had to put a last chance plug into my oil pan because someone had used a dodge oil pan plug and this messed up the threads on the my oil pan. He didnt mention anything about an oil leak. I debated whether to bore a bigger hole into the pan and get a replacement plug. I read that doing this can sometimes lead to metal shavings in the pan and that could cause problems with the engine.

So I purchased a replacement pan and had a very local garage install it. I had some other car things to take care of, like replacing headlights, and that is when I noticed that there was an oil leak. Also, the dipstick was unable to be removed, like it was caught on something. the leak was extensive enough that I had to have the timing belt replaced because oil was all over it. I bring it back to the garage. So they remove the dipstick and replace it with a new one. And I think they re-seal and tighten up the bolts on the oil pan.

My friend cleans the oil stains and puts this uv flourescent dye in with the engine oil. He checks things out a couple of days later and he can see, based on the dye, that oil is leaking from the oil pan, on the passenger side, closer to the windshield as opposed to the headlights.

Honda Accords dont use gaskets for their oil pans. I learned about Honda Bond, a specific sealant for Hondas, and I purchase.

I need to bring the vehicle to the garage that installed the oil pan. i will tell them about the dye and that I need the pan installed properly. I will have them use the Honda Bond. Is there anything that I am missing here. Is there any reason the garage could not fix the leak the first time I brought the vehicle back? Of course they represented to me that it was fixed. Could the mechanic have messed up bolting the oil pan on two separate occasions? I purchased the oil pan from Rock Auto. What is the likelihood that the pan was defective?

Is it usual for there to be problems after replacing an oil pan? is there anything I should tell the garage mechanic who is going to do the work?

poorman212

On a non gasket surface, getting the seal using RTV (hondabond, permetx, ect) is a skill that comes with many tries and time.

Just me but I'd bet the "mechanic" didn't get the seal right.

nico08

Hi poorman212. I think you are right about the mechanic not getting the seal right. It concerns me that he has had to opportunities to get it right, when he first intalled the oil pan and when I came back to address the oil leak. I am going to see him on monday and give him the Honda Bond. I hope I can find some step by step instructions that he can follow in order to get the job done right.

do you know how long that flourescent dye that reveals oil leaks stays active for? Will it be active after he redoes the seal on monday?

poorman212

The dye will pretty much be lost when the oil is drained from the pan before removal.

nico08

Thank you poorman212, this material will help me on Monday. And I searched for a Accord V6 seventh generation service manual and I found one, so I have it for the next time I run into a problem.

I didn't consider the oil being changed during the oil pan installation, so now I understand why the new oil wont contain much of the fluorescent dye.

poorman212

Hope it works out for you. Again, using just permatex/hondabond/rtv type sealants with no gasket is not an easy task......trust me I've got it wrong more times than I would like to admit