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oil light came on...intermittent leak?

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vshah

vshah

Lifer
So as I was pulling in to a parking spot last week, my oil light flashed momentarily. As soon as I was straight/in the spot, it was off, and I of course turned the engine off right away.

I checked the oil level and it was below the min marker on the stick, so I added 1.5-2L to bring it up to the mid point. from empty, my car takes just about 5L to that point.

since then, i've noticed a very, very slow, very intermittent leak. The leak hasn't affected my oil level in 5 days, it's still right at the mid point. Some days i'll notice a few drops under the car, some days there won't be anything.

What worries me is that I was probably driving around for a couple weeks with low oil. It checked and fine when I last did autox in may, and my daily drive is very calm.

Am I being paranoid? I'm going to get the car up on jacks at some point this week and see if I can find the source of the leak. It's due for an oil/filter change as well anyway.

car is a 2007 civic si, just about 70k miles.
 
I'd change the oil and oil filter first, then get a good under carriage wash and then monitor for leaks. Not much you can do about having previously gone too low on oil except learn to check your oil (and tires) every time you fill your car up with gas.
 
found the leak, it's one drop every ~10 minutes from the oil drain bolt. probably just needs a new washer.
 
How many miles ago was your last oil change? I find it difficult to believe that you lost this much oil through a drainplug leak and you didn't notice it in your garage.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
How many miles ago was your last oil change? I find it difficult to believe that you lost this much oil through a drainplug leak and you didn't notice it in your garage.
Click to expand...

i recently moved, was parking on the street before. last oil change was 4000 miles ago. like i said, it was fine at the start of autox about a month ago. i find it weird that I didn't mention it again.
 
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