Rep Power: 117

Read a bunch of threads about oil leaks.

Here's what's happening.
It started leaking oil quite rapidly over the past few days, in all honesty it's been crazy amounts.
No black or blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe. It's somewhere in the engine compartment.
I jacked it up today and crawled under. I could see the oil but couldn't quite tell where it was coming from.
So I started it up, crawled back under to look around and sure enough the oil was dripping like a slow leak on a faucet.
It appears to be coming from somewhere above the oil filter. Definitely something near/ above the oil filter.
Anybody have any idea what is just above, and in the vicinity of the oil filter that could leak oil like a sieve?
I figure a seal or gasket of some sort blew.

Maybe odd, but the car runs great, it's just developed a oil leak.
150k mile, 2003 Civic EX

Thanks in advance!

 
Rep Power: 230

Above the filter is good, that means it's not a rear main seal leak.

Check
-vtec solinoid seal
-valve cover gasket
-valve cover end cap

 
Rep Power: 223

Check that the filter isn't double gasketed as well

 
Rep Power: 117

Never heard of an oil filter being double gasketed. Did a quick search and found out what it is.Interesting but makes sense how it could happen.
The current filter has been on since I did the last oil change and the Civic is due for an oil change.
I have a new filter and was going to install it but stopped short trying to solve where the leak was coming from.
I'll install it and see what happens. Maybe it's leaking out of the top of the filter. Wouldn't that be a joy of a simple fix.

 
Rep Power: 0

I believe there is a oil pressure sensor directly above the oil filter. That seal could also be leaking.

 
Rep Power: 117

Thanks all for your help and insights.

I checked the solinoid seal as well as the valve cover gasket and end cap first and found no leaks.
One under the car I could see the oil leak looked to be on the other side of the engine.

I ended up pulling the oil filter to replace it and in the process didn't see anything that indicated it had been double gasketed.
However so far it appears replacing the oil filter has fixed the problem.

This has been all new to me as I have never seen an oil filter leak.
And in my case it went from a small leak to something that was fairly extreme over the course of a couple of weeks.
It's still kind of baffling as the oil filter I pulled off didn't have any visible signs of having any issues.
In any case so far so good, the leak seems to have stopped.

 
Rep Power: 223

Could have been a chunk of crap stuck on the gasket or the sealing surface on the engine, could've been installed too loose, could've just been a defective gasket, think I've had a couple of those in the thousands of oil changes I've done.
Hopefully no more leaks