Oil Leak

Discuss topics related to the CA18DE and CA18DET series engines.
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Here's how it goes. I noticed a few oil drops under the car. I thought "I will check it later, it doesn't seem too bad I guess". I drove the car like that for a day. On the next morning I noticed the drops are getting noticeable and frequent. The previous day I had to wait to see an actual drop. I had to do my work so I left the car as it is and took my other car. A few days after that I went to the car and saw a big oil stain under the car. I started the car just to leave the engine to work for a while so the battery won't die for just sitting around. The low oil light was not on so I thought "its still ok" :facepalm: After 2-3 mins the normal engine noise turned into kinda loud rattle and instantly figured out why that happened - it was low on oil. I turned off the engine. I had to go to work so couldn't check it out. Today I was free and went to check the car. The oil stick or whatever its called (sorry I am not native english speaker) was dry I may say - so there's no more oil in the engine, everything was under the car. It seems the top of the engine is fine, it looks clean. I can see the drop on the back on the engine, its covering the transmission. What can it be? I thought its punctured oil pan but apparently it isn't. The oil is coming from the above but I don't know where from exactly :gotme If you can just give me some examples what can be leaking? The only thing that comes to my mind is the crankshaft :confused:


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float_6969
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The only 3 things that can leak out that much oil with the engine off are the oil pan seal (it's not a gasket, it's just RTV), the oil drain plug or the rear main seal. For it to leak down so low that it was not on the dipstick anymore, it's either the oil drain plug or the oil pan seal. The oil drain plug is pretty obvious when it leaks, so I think it's probably the oil pan seal, below where the rear main seal is, but check the oil drain plug first.

The best way to find an oil leak like that is to get a couple of cans of brake clean (the aerosol type) and clean everything off REALLY well under there. Not any oil left on anything in the area. Then fill it back up with oil and then get underneath and start watching. This sounds like a bad leak and you should start to see the oil come out pretty quickly. Use cheap oil, because whatever is leaking, you're going to have to drain this oil right back out to fix it and just waste it.

Good luck and keep us updated!

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Fast oil leaks towards the rear of the engine could be the half-moon rubber seals on the firewall side of the head, really bad exhaust valve cover seal or your rear main seal (highly suspect) has failed or was damaged upon installation which will cause immediate leakage.

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boost_boy wrote:or your rear main seal (highly suspect)
That was my thought exactly. We'll see whats going on in the upcoming week. I highly doubt its something so simple as the oil pan. Its never that easy :crazy:

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float_6969 wrote: Good luck and keep us updated!
Rofl, it was everything :chuckle: :crazy: The oil pan seals (the two rubber oval things) were screwed and the rear main seal was gone. Besides I think the silicone seal of the oil pan was not as its supposed to be but I will fix everything anyway. On top of that the gearbox was leaking from the 2 sensors. The bad news is I can't unscrew the main bolt that's used to refill the transmission oil.

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sjbsuperman1425
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To refill the transmission, remove the shifter from the trans and pour the correct amount of fluid in. I think its like 2.5qts or something.


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