2017 Sport Possible oil leak? Should I be concerned? (pics) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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2017 Sport Possible oil leak? Should I be concerned? (pics)

DanF861

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Joined
December 15, 2017
Messages
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City, State
Minneapolis, MN
Year, Model & Trim Level
2017 Explorer Sport
My 2017 Explorer Sport has just over 36k miles (out of the factory warranty now), and up until now has had the factory maintenance with dealer oil changes every 5k miles. Today I wanted to change the oil myself using Mobil 1 synthetic, and noticed what appears to be evidence of an oil leak on the passenger side oil pan and area above it. Attached are a couple photos. Is this anything to be concerned about? It drives great and I've never had any issues at all until I noticed this today.

I wonder if this might be a reasonable excuse to consider trading in on a different vehicle.

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I don't see any obvious leak from looking at the pictures. I'm guessing there are no oil drip spots where you normally park. I've never checked the underside of mine but I wouldn't expect it to be very clean. You could try wiping down those areas and see if the same thing happens again. As long as the oil level is good I don't think there is too much to worry about. Who knows how long its been like this.

Peter
 






Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and wiped it down and will keep an eye on it. It's not only dirty, but also very greasy with a bit of visible oil so it does appear to be a leak from somewhere. Probably a slow leak at best.
 






should be covered under 5yr/50k powertrain, my oil leak was.
 












While the underside of your engine may be dirty, it should NOT be oily. You have an oil leak which is not going to get better over time, it will get worse. Oil leaks cause a drop in oil pressure.

I think many Sports have this issue.

Front Engine Cover Oil Leak on Explorer Sport
 






Mines had a drop every few days. On mines the turbo was leaking oil and was covered under warranty. Yours should be covered under powertrain 5yr/60K. They replaced turbo unit and a few seals. Please report back your outcome and what was done so we have comprehensive data for others.
 






Thanks for the info everyone! Glad to hear that it might be covered under the powertrain warranty. For now I've wiped the area clean and will keep an eye on it until the next oil change. If it's still present at that time I will be taking it into the dealer.
 






Prior to my current 2018 Explorer, I had a 2015 Edge Sport, which had a 2.7-liter Ecoboost engine in it. Unfortunately, that engine also uses a PLASTIC oil pan, which was replaced twice (and yet still continued to leak).

While a "small" leak might seem tolerable to some, most owners will eventually become less tolerant of it when that small leakage starts hitting the hot exhaust crossover pipe(s) below the pan... and results in a constant burning oil smell inside the car!

Since Ford had no real "fix" for the poor design of the oil pan on the Edge, I got rid of it, after the problem continued to reoccur!
 






I took my Explorer into Ford and they determined the leak is from the front timing cover, which they're going to repair under the powertrain warranty. They will also cover the cost of a rental vehicle which is nice! From chatting with the service advisor it sounds like a fairly extensive repair.
 






In order to fix my timing cover leak properly, they removed the engine to have access to work on it. They may try and do it with the engine not removed, but its quite difficult to do it successfully unless they remove the engine. Make sure that they follow the new guidelines for letting the newly applied sealant (in place of gasket) dry overnight before reassembly or you will have the leak again.
 






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