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So I've been having an oil leak problem for a couple of months now in my 1999 TL. Since my tranny is on borrowed time, I'm not sure if I'm going to put more money in the car or trade it in, so I've been neglecting the repair. When i noticed the leak it was shortly after an oil change at the local oil service shop. I brought it back in thinking they may have not tightened the filter or drain bolt. They looked at the car and said it was leaking from the oil pan and that the filter and bolt were sealed.
I took some time today to get underneath it and look around. I see two areas where oil is making it to the ground. The area of the oil pan near the oil filter and a large are below the transmission. I checked the tranny fluid and it's not moved, so I'm confident it's oil.
Here are some pics of the oil pan and tranny area,
1) There's a bolt you can see in the following pics at the oil filter housing which is dripping oil. Since this is above the oil pan, I'm not sure whats up there is a common source for leaks. Would oil from the pan leak splash upwards to this bolt?
2) Looking at the oil pan sealant, it looks like the pan may have been removed in the past. Does the factory sealant stick out like this?
3) There accumulation on a small rubber mount by the transmission (see pic by the CV boot) . No idea how oil is getting there.
I hit the underside with purple power and sprayed it down. Hopefully after a drive or two I can see where some of this is coming from. I may just grab some hondabond and do the pan gasket and eliminate that. Looks like the exhaust pipe to the manifolds is the only thing in the way.
ON J series engines, the oil pump housing is a fairly common leaking point. LIke you said since the tranny is on borrowed time, i wouldn't put much into it either personally. Just make sure your oil level is good..
Had a similar problem..Turned out oil was leaking from two seperate places: oil filter housing and O-ring. The O-Ring seal itself went for about 10 bucks but it took the.mechanic five hours to replace as the timing belt needs to be removed.
This would be a lot easier to decide on if I knew definitively where the leaks were. I have other cars I can use if I want to take my time tearing into this one in the garage. I just can't see well enough into that housing area to know where it's leaking from.The dealer wants $150 to diagnose the leak, perhaps it's worth it.
The leak that's covering the tranny case concerns me. If that's a rear main seal, I am NOT messing with it.
I love the car (Especially since I own it), but damnit, it's not worth enough to sell and not worth enough to pay to fix. I keep saying "It's cheaper than a car payment" but after so many days of bloodied knuckled, back breaking, covered in tranny fluid/oil/coolant misery, there comes a breaking point.
Replace the PCV valve and see if that alleviates the leak of oil seeping out of the rear main seal. It fixed many people's including mine.
I'll do this tomorrow since I just cleaned the underside of the tranny case. Maybe I can get a better vantage point into the oil filter housing area to see where the oil is coming from. I guess the VTEC spool valve and oil pressure sensor are prone to leaking, as is the oil filter housing assembly?
Replaced the PCV valve today and had a look around the underside to see where oil had begun pooling.
I pulled the front right wheel off and turned the steering to gain visual access to the oil filter housing area this time. Oil had begun to form a drop on the underside of the lowest oil filter housing mounting bolt again and I could see oil had been pooling on the area directly under it. I didn't see any oil higher than this and the VTEC solenoid and oil pressure sensor areas were dry and clean. I'm thinking the oil filter housing seal might be one, if not the culprit. I ran it for about 10 minutes, but couldn't see anything leaking, so it must be pretty slow.
I checked the transmission area and found fluid on the CV joint where it meets the transmission casing. I might have a transmission leak after all, &%$#!!!
I replaced the gasket on the oil filter housing today.
Removed the passenger front wheel, then removed the plastic shield covering the harmonic balancer. Unclipped the oil pressure sensor(?) from the housing green connector. Then unclipped the VTEC solenoid wire from the pigtail and unclipped the pigtail from the mounting tab on the engine. Three bolts later and it was off. I took the filter off to make things easier and cleaner as well.
Although the old gasket looked pretty flat, I think I may have an oil pump leak after all. There's a small rectangular opening in the oil pump housing located below the oil filter housing that looked like it was seeping oil (see pic). Not sure if it was just residual oil from the outporing after removing the filter housing, but I cleaned it all up and will see whats there after a day of driving.
I replaced the gasket on the oil filter housing today.
Removed the passenger front wheel, then removed the plastic shield covering the harmonic balancer. Unclipped the oil pressure sensor(?) from the housing green connector. Then unclipped the VTEC solenoid wire from the pigtail and unclipped the pigtail from the mounting tab on the engine. Three bolts later and it was off. I took the filter off to make things easier and cleaner as well.
Although the old gasket looked pretty flat, I think I may have an oil pump leak after all. There's a small rectangular opening in the oil pump housing located below the oil filter housing that looked like it was seeping oil (see pic). Not sure if it was just residual oil from the outporing after removing the filter housing, but I cleaned it all up and will see whats there after a day of driving.
I'm having the same problem, were you able to fix the problem?
02-04-2017, 08:27 PM
