Has your OIL PAN GASKET ever leaked?

[SyberTiger]

I'm trying to figure out the source of an oil leak I have.

• It's not the front crank seal. I recently replaced it while replacing the timing chains.
• It's not the valve cover gaskets. I recently replaced those while replacing the timing chains.
• It's not the oil filter adapter. That was leaking a few years ago but I changed out the gasket to fix that.
• I don't think it's the rear main seal but not 100% sure.

From what I can tell it's actually the oil pan gasket but I'm kind of surprised to see leaks. The reason I don't think it's the rear seal is because oil is observed on the outside of the oil pan about halfway from the front towards the back. I don't think an oil leak from the rear seal would blow forward. Although, I could have an oil leak there too in addition to the oil pan gasket.

Anyhow, I'm about 90% sure it's the oil pan gasket and it's leaking on both sides about half way back and I see oil on three of the oil pan bolt heads nearest the tranny. I'm just looking for someone to chime in and let me know it is not unusual for a 2002 4.6L with 150K miles on it to start leaking oil around the pan gasket.

If that's the case does a re-torque of the pan bolts generally fix the problem?

 

[07gtman]

Did you ever have a jack under there? that would crush the gasket ...

 

[SyberTiger]

Did you ever have a jack under there? that would crush the gasket ...

Nope...I either use ramps or I use the factory specified jack points. I think I'll just re-torque the pan bolts at the next oil change interval in about 200 miles. The only question at this point is....Is it possible/likely that oil from the rear seal can flow/blow to the areas in the pictures. I think it's highly unlikely which points to the pan bolts. I was mostly curious to know how many other folks have seen a similar leak. So far, no one has jumped on that comment.

In particular, look at the first picture...I think it's pretty clear that the oil source is about half way back from the front of the pan and is blowing/flowing towards the back of the pan.

 

[07gtman]

i would think not like that. Are there large puddles where you park, or just small drips

 

[SyberTiger]

i would think not like that. Are there large puddles where you park, or just small drips

Just small drips in the garage...It's probably leaking about 1 qt of oil over 3,000 miles which is about 6 months for me. I change the oil every 3K miles.

 

[07gtman]

i would do just as you said, re check all those bolts first, hopefully that does it.. good luck

 

[mountaineer2004]

My mountaineer drips just a bit, like yours.
I ended up cutting a piece of plywood, to fit under, to catch the 2 or 3 drips that appeared overnight.
Easy solution to a small, but annoying problem.

 

[SyberTiger]

My mountaineer drips just a bit, like yours.
I ended up cutting a piece of plywood, to fit under, to catch the 2 or 3 drips that appeared overnight.
Easy solution to a small, but annoying problem.

Do you know the source of your leak? Could be the front seal, rear seal, the infamous oil filter adapter gasket....or, the oil pan among other things, etc.

 

[mountaineer2004]

No, I never checked. I learned a long time ago not to sweat the small stuff.

 

[07gtman]

i hate the mess that makes, find the leak..

 

[mountaineer2004]

Syber, I'm doing a bit of work on the car now, and started by changing the oil filter housing adaptor yesterday. It was leaking ! (165k miles)

 

[07gtman]

Those seem to be an issue, hope thats it ...i have 159,000 on my 05 have to keep an eye open..i also need rear u-joint, im going to try to get that saturday.

 

[SyberTiger]

I tightened up 12 of the 16 oil pan bolts (13mm) today. We'll see if that does the trick. The four bolts I did not tighten are the four front bolts that were recently reinstalled when I did the timing chain (cover) job. I don't think I can get to them if I wanted to anyway.

Of the other 12 bolts I was able to get a torque wrench on 10 of them. Unfortunately, there is no "torque spec" for the pan bolts other than to torque them to 15 ft-lbs then turned them another 60 degrees which means using that process for an already installed oil pan you'd have to loosen the bolts first before torquing. I decided to torque them just a bit to get the bolts to turn about 15 more degrees. A torque setting of 20 ft-lbs did get them to budge at all so I tried 25 ft-lbs and got a couple of them to start to turn. In the end I set the torque wrench to 28 ft-lbs which allowed the bolts to turn in about 15 degrees. The other two bolts are behind the 4-wheel drive assembly so I could not get a torque wrench on them. I was able to get a 13mm box wrench on them (barely) then put a pipe over the end of the box wrench to get enough leverage to get them to turn inward.

We'll see if that fixes the problem...fingers crossed.

 

[icepickjazz]

Syber -- Any updates

 

[wheredidigowrong]

SyberTiger I know this is dredging up a 4 year old issue but did your torquing of the Oil Pan bolts fix your problem? I have a very similar issue and my oil pan looks nearly identical to yours in the photos at the beginning of this thread. I was quoted $1,100 to replace the Oil Pan gasket due to all the work involved to remove the parts and drop the pan and sadly for me and my beloved 2002 XLT that will NOT be happening. I'd love to find some simple fix such as retorqing the bolts but my mechanic (who is trustworthy and VERY highly rated by everyone) said that won't help it will just make the problem worse.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying to get this truck to well over 200,000 miles (currently at 175,000).

Thanks!

 

[SyberTiger]

It did not fix my problem at all. It did not make it worse but the problem never went away. Because my Ex is 4-wheel drive it's not a simply matter of unbolting the pan and replacing the gasket. There's all that front wheel drive hardware that makes the task difficult meaning I'd have to pay someone to do the job. I'm in a similar situation as you, it has about 170K miles on it but it's going on 20 years old so it doesn't make sense to put a lot of money into it. I live with the drips and having to add oil every once in awhile. Honestly, I don't think I've put 3,000 miles on it the last year and a half due to working at home due to the pandemic. It's garage kept so I keep a piece of cardboard under it and change it out every once in awhile. If I parked it on the driveway it'd be a real problem. I'd probably pay someone $500 to make the problem go away but $1,100 doesn't seems sensible for a vehicle this old since it's a minor inconvenience.