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What is an acceptable level of oil leakage?

TridenT

TridenT

Lifer
Just curious. It seems like my car might be leaking oil. I'm going to be cleaning the underside of it eventually one of these days(it makes it easier to tell when it's all clean and then you see an oil trail), but it felt like and looked like there was some fresh oil under there... It had that kind of 'hey, I just leaked out of your engine' shine.

/worried
 
If you have to put in a quart a week; then start getting concerned. It will get worse.

At 1 qt a day; plan on seizing the engine.

Best to clean the engine and find the leak.
Oil pan gasket or drain plug is not a problem to handle.

A gasket on the block will start getting expensive.
 
DaTT said:
To me, any oil leak is unacceptable.
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This


Isolate and fix.


Could be something as simple as the oil filter seal. If you cant tell in your drive way take it to two independent shops and see what their free estimates tell you. If two are very different take it to a third. Most shops will give you a free lookie loo.
 
manimal said:
This


Isolate and fix.


Could be something as simple as the oil filter seal. If you cant tell in your drive way take it to two independent shops and see what their free estimates tell you. If two are very different take it to a third. Most shops will give you a free lookie loo.
Click to expand...

X3 for anyleak is unacceptable find it fix i andt save yourself alot of trouble in the long run
 
As a motorcycle rider, I appreciate it when people don't leave insanely slippery oil all over the roads that I ride.🙂
 
I ran my 76 Suburban for years on a quart every other fill up. My Subaru didn't do so good using 4 quarts within the span of 50 miles. 🙁
 
DaTT said:
To me, any oil leak is unacceptable.
Click to expand...

If I went by that criteria on my jeeps I'd go insane! However, the leaks are small and they're the typical locations on jeeps where they'll just let a drop every once and a while for a decade without getting worse. However, if a leak shows up in a place that's not a typical jeep leak that gets fixed immediately.

My advice is to find out exactly what's leaking, get an idea how badly it's leaking, and what's typical for your car. If its just a very slow leak (as in a drop or two every once and a while) in a place that's known to be benign then you can make a decision based on how much it bugs you. If it's a bunch coming from a spot that's abnormal for your kind of car you should fix it ASAP.
 
Consider it bad when you have to hire a monkey to sit under the hood with a case of oil and pour it in when you hang your head out the window and scream... "going a little faster" 😛

Of course you could rig a drip pan under your car with little pump in the bottom and a hose running back up and in the top of the engine...? (have actually seen the pan idea before but no pump):|

Or just like everyone else has said if its a leak that drips you should get it fixed or suffer the consequences... (small seeps do not count)
 
Bartman39 said:
Consider it bad when you have to hire a monkey to sit under the hood with a case of oil and pour it in when you hang your head out the window and scream... "going a little faster" 😛
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With the Suburban, we discussed the possibility of running a filler tube from the dash.
 
My first car used about a quart per fill up (and only 10 gallon tank), but that was an engine with nearly 200k miles. None of that was leaked, it was all burning.

When I finally retired it though, it was blowing visible blue smoke out the exhaust the entire time it was running. The engine needed rebuilt, but... It wasn't worth it at that time.
 
IronWing said:
With the Suburban, we discussed the possibility of running a filler tube from the dash.
Click to expand...

A friend had a car (89 Celica) that went through a full quart every 80 miles (bad front main seal). He ran straight 40W oil to slow it down a little. It was months before he finally ponied up the cash to fix it. Amazingly, that car got up to around 240k before it developed enough problems that it just wasn't worth the hassle vs. taking the bus.
 
Oil leaks are generally not hard to fix unless its a main seal, so i would fix it. Valve covers, oil pans, intake gaskets are all very easy to fix yourself and will take less than a hour to fix. For what its worth i just rebuilt a chev smallblock for my truck and its leaking zero oil so far, on second oil change since rebuild. The old engine before it blew apart was going through about a liter a month, wasnt leaking it though it was burning it, i had fixed all the leaks before it blew up..
 
Rifter said:
Oil leaks are generally not hard to fix unless its a main seal, so i would fix it. Valve covers, oil pans, intake gaskets are all very easy to fix yourself and will take less than a hour to fix. For what its worth i just rebuilt a chev smallblock for my truck and its leaking zero oil so far, on second oil change since rebuild. The old engine before it blew apart was going through about a liter a month, wasnt leaking it though it was burning it, i had fixed all the leaks before it blew up..
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Unless it's a Subaru...haha... 😛
 
DaTT said:
To me, any oil leak is unacceptable.
Click to expand...

+9000

Last oil leak I had was in the Cobra; it was a single drop. Something around the oil cooler was the only thing barely wet.

I immediately ordered: oil/coolant adapter to block gasket, oil o ring, coolant o ring, oil filter adapter central shaft with built in o ring, the large allen head socket for the central shaft, 8 quarts of oil and a filter to do an oil change while it was apart.

I also intentionally broke all the pipe plugs loose in the sending unit tee on the oil filter adapter and resealed all the plugs and threads.

I tend to use nuclear weapons from orbit to solve the smallest of problems. :awe:
 
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Oil burn is acceptable, because all vehicles do it to some degree, even if minute.
Oil leaks aren't really, unless they are VERY small. As others have said. The mains you can live with, because the fix is costly (labour) but anything else should be fixed.

I fixed an oil leak on my old Saturn with a new (used) Valve cover and gasket set. Engine was dry as a bone afterwards and it was about $75 for everything.
 
jlee said:
Unless it's a Subaru...haha... 😛
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true, ive only worked on a few subbies and they are always a pain, i remember doing a brake job on one a few years back and needing some special tool to screw the piston back into the caliper, whoever designed that stupid piston should be shot, twice, maybe three times just to be sure.
 
Rifter said:
true, ive only worked on a few subbies and they are always a pain, i remember doing a brake job on one a few years back and needing some special tool to screw the piston back into the caliper, whoever designed that stupid piston should be shot, twice, maybe three times just to be sure.
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That sounds like my MR2's rear calipers. Forester brakes are easy...but oil pan removal requires jacking up the engine, and valve cover gaskets aren't easy to get to.
 
jlee said:
Unless it's a Subaru...haha... 😛
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funny you should say this, i just picked up a 95 legacy wagon with a pretty decent oil leak. found out it is likely the oil pump gasket, but to get to it i have to pull the timing belt. so, i may as well do the crank seal, cam seals, water pump, timing belt, idlers and tensioners while im in there. nothing like taking the whole front of the engine down to repair a simple seal leak.

it was cheap, great interior and straight body, with a decent engine tho, so its still worth it for now.
 
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