I recently purchased a 97 del sol knowing it had an oil leak, however, I cannot seem to pinpoint the exact location or cause of the leak. I crawled under it today and these are the pictures I was able to take.

Has anyone experienced or seen a leak from this area? It is a pretty large leak and drips onto my exhaust, causing it to smoke.








I did look through numerous post about oil leaks etc.

 

It could be from a few locations. Your best bet is going to be getting under there with some degreaser and a bag full of rags, cleaning it until it shines, and then starting the car on jackstands, while you're under it, to see where it's coming from.

If I absolutely had to wager a guess, I'd take a stab at the valve cover gasket, but there's just too much **** there to be sure.

 

That is grease being flung out from a torn CV boot.

 

Some of it might be, but a good bit of it is too old to be sure, and then there are other points that it is clearly oil dripping.

 

Absolutely! Exactly what I thought looking at the second pic for sure.





eH.

 

I do have a bad cv axle that I am attempting to change. I will get under it tomorrow and give it a good cleaning and see what I can find. I'll post updated pictures tomorrow, thanks for the replies!

 

If it's not the valve cover, it could also be the oil pressure sending unit leaking as well as the breather box could have a bad o-ring on it. Both of those are right around in that area of the back side of the block.

 

Thanks for the replies. I crawled under it and could not figure it out directly. Attempted to change the head gasket this weekend and became intimidated with disconnecting everything and backed off. I couldn't find a white up that made me feel confident in attempting this myself. I also have a Haynes book for the car.

Thinking about having a professional or someone who has done something this major before.

Anyone in the Lexington Kentucky area looking to help with a project?

 

the best way to do it is to label all of the connectors with masking/painters tape. You might also want to download the factory service manual since its more accurate than the Haynes book.

 

Hard to tell from the pics but worst case would be the rear main seal (labor wise).

Even the oil pan gasket can be tricky to get done right.

 

Is it hard to clean off and investigate? If you can't pinpoint it just by looking at it how are we going to do the same? Get that brake cleaner in there, and watch your eyes when doing this, and make sure you don't miss anything. Get the car on JACKSTANDS and start the car then watch to see where its leaking from.

 

There's always UV dye and a black light.

 

Oil cannot be that hard to spot leaking out. The color of oil is a golden brown. If you're color blind than you're just going to have to take it to a mechanic.

 

Looks like cv boots have gone bad. Replace boots and clean oil and grease with hot water and dish soap. It works well if you put it in a spray bottle and spray away. Check for more leaks once area is fully cleaned.