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Small Oil Leak - Passenger Side

Querys

Well-Known Member
Joined
August 22, 2018
Messages
177
Reaction score
14
Location
Germany
City, State
Cologne
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013, Explorer Limited
Hello everyone,

my 3.5 TiVCT Explorer has a small oil leak on the passanger side. it drips to the small engine cover, which protects the V-belt from water and dirt.
unfortunately I do not see the origin of the oil.
Anyone an idea, if there are common known issues in this area?

Thanks :)
 



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You do not see any staining or anything wet under the hood? I had an oil leak from the valve cover I believe. I could see it if I popped the hood and looked between the engine and firewall from the passenger side. You could tell part of the engine was wet/stained from oil.
 






See my thread - Front Engine Cover Oil Leak on Explorer Sport

I had a leaky engine cover, which I would suspect in your case first. The engine cover does not use a gasket to seal, it just uses a RTV sealant bead which seems pretty silly to me.

After the engine cover leak was repaired a new leak became evident from the head gasket. They pulled the engine and replaced all the gaskets and bolts for the head, under warranty.

I suspect that there are many explorers with the same engine leak, its just not readily apparent unless you can get under the car. In my case it never dripped to the floor, I only noticed it when I had the car on the lift to rotate the tires.
 












If I have to repair it that way, I keep it leaking. Thats to much of work, to repair a small leak.

Yes, its a big job. If you still have warranty though I would get it done. Otherwise, wait till you have to do another repair that requires removing the engine cover.

You still need to determine where you leak is coming from though....
 






today the weather was good enough to crawl under the vehicle.
I saw a drop at the oil filter and it was a little bit wet. The filter was quite tight but I tightened it a bit more without tools.
Maybe this was enough. I keep monitoring it.
 






When was the last time you had an oil and filter change? Possible it didn't get wiped down enough and a little dripping down the side of the filter is just residual from that.

I had that issue with my wife's car one time. Now I make sure I double wipe everything once the new filter is tightened.
 






I made the change in August 2018. At this time I had a large leak because the filter was not tight enough.
For me the tightening of the oil filter is unfamiliar because I have to tight it a lot more than at my Audi and Volkswagens.
 






I had one filter do the same thing, small drips onto my garage floor.

For that filter hand tight was not enough, I had to tighten it up with a wrench another 1/8 of a turn. On my last oil change I just tightened it up hand tight and all still looks good.

All the filters were Motorcraft from the same lot and same box since I picked up a 12 pack of them.
 






Oil filters only need to be hand tight. Over tightening is more bad then good.
 






Oil filters only need to be hand tight. Over tightening is more bad then good.

I need to introduce you to my 96 Ford F250 diesel. If you don't use a wrench on it you will have a steady stream of oil coming out of the filter connection. It doesn't matter what filter you use, Motorcraft, Fram, Wix, or any other, it likes to mark its spot if you don't tighten it down with the wrench.
 






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