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I was changing my transmission fluid on my 14 TL SH-AWD ADV when i notice there was oil residue by the oil nut. I was curious if anyone else had this issue with there TL before i take it to the dealership and pay $165 for a diagnostic test to see where the leak is coming from. Here are some pics that i was able to get:
Yeah, I see it on mine. Non-issue in my opinion. If you're not getting a bunch of oil drips on your driveway or notice the oil level drop between oil changes (or ATF dropping when checking the dipstick) then it's not a big deal. That's just me. Many cars over 50K miles or so are going to start developing very minor leaks. Rear main seal, valve cover seal, cam seals, oil pan gasket, list goes on and on. I'd venture to say 75% of the cars on the road today have a very minor leak. By very minor I mean something like an ounce or two between changes - enough to notice when looking under the car but never enough to result in drips or oil level dropping.
There's certainly no way I'd pay for someone to simply tell me "X" is leaking. "X" being some seal that would cost half a fortune to replace so I'd quit leaking half an ounce of fluid every couple of months. Even when you find out what it is, you'll likely come to the conclusion that it's better to just let it leak a bit rather than paying several hundred dollars to replace.
The only exception would be the valve cover seals. Those are relatively easy. You'll still pay a mechanic a few hundred bucks to do but it's something an adept DIY'er could do in about 2 hours and the parts run all of $10 or so.
NP. Taking a second look though, it appears there's some oil on that bolt. 3rd and 4th photos. From that, I'd guess it's the oil pan gasket that's seeping a bit. I still don't think I'd be overly worried if you're not seeing drips on the ground. But if you wanted to tackle it, the oil pan gasket isn't terrible. It's not a walk in the park though. You'd think a gasket for nothing but an oil pan would be cake but there's a bit more to it. You could look up the procedure to see what it involves. If I'm correct, it's largely a matter of being very careful with cleaning, placement and torqueing when replacing the gasket and reinstalling the oil pan. I've never had to do it myself.
Check the main bearing cap bolts. There are 4 on both the front and rear of the engine. I had similar issue, though with slightly more seeping. It would leave a drop after parking. There were two main bearing cap bolts which were seeping.
03-12-2019, 02:30 PM
