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instant/large oil leak?

T

towmyvws

NAXJA Forum User
Location
louisville ky
i know this is a long shot, seeing as how none of you guys are here to actually look at my truck, but i thought i'd ask for some ideas to bounce around in class tomorrow...

my xj has leaked a BIT since ive owned it. some days not at all, some days a couple drops when i park it. today i took it to get gas and some coffee to study on, and when i started it it idled funny for a minute, then it drove great. at the gas station it leaked a basketball-sized puddle, ditto for when i got back to the gf's apartment. it still runs great, has plenty of pep and is making great oil psi as per the guage in the dash.

the oil is dripping/waterfalling from the front lip/bottom of the grill on the driver's side. i would think front end of the motor, maybe front main, but the oil is pretty much strictly on the driver's corner of the engine bay. was too dark to poke around under the hood, so i only know that there is oil everywhere under the radiator, driver's side.

last oil change (500ish miles ago) i upgraded to a heavier oil, to try and help the leak and psi problems. anybody got any ideas?
 
The 2 most common are crankcase seals which are a PITA. and the other being the Oil filter adapter O-rings. Pretty easy fix. The oil filter adapter leak acts just like a seal leak because it'll run along the lip of the oil pan and come out about the same place as the other leak. Right below the Oil filter feel around on the lip of the oil pan and see if looks like it is coming from there. If so use search and you can find info on how to replace the o-rings. Of course if all the oil is on the driver sdie this info may be wrong.
Just put in Oil filter Adapter fix or other searchs using those words. Good Luck !
 
boise49ers said:
The 2 most common are crankcase seals which are a PITA. and the other being the Oil filter adapter O-rings. Pretty easy fix. The oil filter adapter leak acts just like a seal leak because it'll run along the lip of the oil pan and come out about the same place as the other leak. Right below the Oil filter feel around on the lip of the oil pan and see if looks like it is coming from there. If so use search and you can find info on how to replace the o-rings. Of course if all the oil is on the driver sdie this info may be wrong.
Just put in Oil filter Adapter fix or other searchs using those words. Good Luck !
Click to expand...

Wrong area for where his leak is coming from ;)


I vote for either a trans line is leaking from the radiator or the power steering box is leaking.
 
its definitely motor oil, not atf or power steering fluid. i can't think of anything over in that area that moves oil, and i find it hard to believe the front crank seal is leaking that hardcore, but i havent even looked at it yet.

by the way, it may not matter, but its a renix 4.0.
 
is the vent hose from the valve cover possibly dumping oil out?
 
when my CCV hose to the rear of the valve cover was unhooked I ended up with about a quart of oil in the airbox, it proceeded to drip all down the inside of the fender and framerail.

Check the airbox.
 
On my 99, the oil adapter was leaking and it ran along the rubber engine cover underneath and was dripping off on the drivers side by the radiator. So I can see the oil making its way over there to that side of the motor before it drips down. I know mine did the same thing although not to the extent he is speaking of. Hope that helps....
 
airbox was bone dry. got under the truck, looked around. there was fresh oil on the front sway and bottom of the steering box, but that's it, its not like i thought it would be, oil covering everything. i let it idle up to operating temp, didnt drip anything. drove it around town, still wont leak.:dunno:

wondering if it has to do with the temp changing now, the night it happened was the first cold night of the season here, and the weather today is beatiful. it may be a little overfilled on oil too, though.

im stumped. i don't like the idea of driving it like normal and every once in a while having it relieve itself on somebody's driveway.
 
Spray down everything oily with degreaser clean it up get it dry. Check in a couple days, source should be more apparent.

Remember, This is fun, just keep repeating
 
I would say a bad oilpan gasket, I know this is what happened with mine. I replaced it with a high quality rubber gasket, I used permatex RTV silicone sealent fixed that problem, then I needed to get a rear main seal replaced after the pan was back. So I put it in the shop and was told that because the XJ had 195,000 miles on it the new seal might not help anything. I think they were lying to me, miles shouldn't affect the ability for a new seal to seal.
 
megabyte5689 said:
I would say a bad oilpan gasket, I know this is what happened with mine. I replaced it with a high quality rubber gasket, I used permatex RTV silicone sealent fixed that problem, then I needed to get a rear main seal replaced after the pan was back. So I put it in the shop and was told that because the XJ had 195,000 miles on it the new seal might not help anything. I think they were lying to me, miles shouldn't affect the ability for a new seal to seal.
Click to expand...

Not entirely bogus. Sometimes the seal will wear a little groove in the crankshaft, and the new seal either will not seat in or will not last. Fel Pro makes a special seal with double lips to address this problem.
 
I had the bolts back out of my timing chain cover, only noticed it when I did a new water pump, the harmonic balancer was keeping them from falling out. Tightened them up and that mystery quart of oil I was loosing between 4,000mi changes stopped.
 
drove it last night and this morning, both at like 50 degrees outside, not a drop. whatever. definitely going to back off the 20w50 oil though, oil pressure seems too high when cold, it makes like 70 lbs of pressure.
 
so the "power steering fluid" in this truck looks and feels and smells like motor oil...im used to looking for bright colored fluids in my volkswagens.

put the hose back on the hardline and clamped her down tight. loose connection was leaking p/s fluid on the driver's frame rail just behind the rad, and showering from there. thanks for the ideas guys.
 
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