I'm still pretty new to Hondas and am mostly a stranger to working on cars in general, especially when it comes to motor and transmission. My cars have never really needed maintenance, so I've done basically no mechanical work on them. I've noticed recently that I have a lot of oil dripping and leaving puddles on the curb. It's dripping from underneath, right below where the back seats are. I followed the oil trail to it's source and it appears to be leaking from the transmission and running down the exhaust. I would just like to get an idea of what needs replaced and how much work/money it's going to take to resolve. I would prefer to do all the work myself, but am hesitant, as it's my only vehicle right now. Is this work that would be best left to a shop? I don't feel like it would be difficult to work on anything mechanical, but due to my lack of experience and knowledge, I'm a bit intimidated.

 

Check all your valve cover gaskets,dizzy seals,oil pan gasket,cam seals its all easy

 

Dont be.

Giving it a good visual inspection wont hurt anything. see if you can find where the oil is coming from and let us know.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to go out after work tonight and see what I can find out. My free time while the sun is still shining is pretty limited, working 2nd shift. Wish I had a garage. Best I have is either the street or an inclined, gravel driveway, both with less than substantial lighting conditions. Valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket are both good. When I did my last oil change, I pulled both and replaced the gaskets and did the rings on the spark plug tubes. Neither appear to be leaking. Valve cover was and it stopped when I did the gasket. Distributor, I don't know about, nor cam seals, etc. Those things are still strange to me. When my vacation starts on the 1st, I'm probably going to spend the entire week tearing into the car.

 

you did say that the oil seemed to be coming from the transmission. what color is the fluid you are seeing?

 

If its travaling down the exhuast check and make sure the oil filter is tight. Because it is located on the back of the motor above the exhaust manifold.

 

yeah i would say check oil filter. make sure someone didnt leave two o-rings on there when they did an oil change.

 

dont over tighten the filter,trust me its a bitch to take off.check the black box next to the filter.you cant miss it.

 

yea i wuld def check black box...also u say may be coming from tranny...hmmm this is crazy but check where (if u have b series) half shaft goes in tranny..sometimes that seal can break and cause oil drippage...

 

x2

 

I wonder what it was?

 

lol i hate when this happens...
if you dont notice it right away, you loscould lose all the oil in the motor within minutes

 

My accord did something similar after the last oil change. Above the oil filter is an oil sensor, surrounded by a rubber boot. It was broke and started leaking after it was bumped while changing the oil filter out! It had the guys at the shop stumped for a good hour, trying filter after filter thinking the filter was the wrong size! Anyways, it was leaking down my exhaust and leaving puddles, also burning off when the exhaust was hot...Dont know what car you have, but I assume its at least based on a civic...And depending on motor, I'd check this out as well...

 

yeah you should check that sensor, i broke mine when i put my engine and i didnt notice until i saw smoke coming out of my hood cuz it got burn on the exausht and still took me a while to figured out cuz i thought it was the filter too

 

I'll make sure to check that. I can't find the exact source of the leak, so that at least gives me another option.