Rep Power: 0

Hi everyone, I recently took my 05 Civic LX to a shop to get timing belt changed and they pointed out that I had oil leaking from the pan.
I thought I would look at it myself first and maybe even fix it myself, but I can not seem to determine where the leak originating exactly.
I changed oil and drain plug a few days ago and cleaned the outside of the pan. This morning I put the car on ramps and look at the pan and saw that there was a little bit of new oil in on the pan, like on the center. It did not seem to leak from the bolts or the drain plug. Is it the gasket? Do I need to take the pan down and change it?
thanks
Victor

 
Rep Power: 518

Could be the gasket, sure.
Yes, you would have to take the pan down to change it.

But how bad is the leak?
Is it causing rapid oil loss?
Is it dangerous or harmful to other parts?


I guess the question became, "Does it need fixed, or can you live with it until it DOES need fixed?"

 
Rep Power: 244

I wouldn't bother with it unless it's leaking really bad, causing harm to other parts/people or leaving oil spots in your driveway (that's not cool).

 
Rep Power: 0

I looked again and this time it seems to be coming from the crank seal. Funny thing though is that like I mentioned I had a timing belt replaced and they should have seen and replaced the seals or at least call me and let me know!
You are right, the leak is so minimal that maybe leaks 30cc of oil in 4-5 days so as long as I check the oil level frequently and monitor the leak it should be ok for sometime.

 
Rep Power: 518

You can't see the front crank seal unless the timing covers are off the engine, and the timing belt and timing gear are removed from the crankshaft.


Anything that leaks or drips inside the timing cover area (from the valve cover gasket on down) is funneled to the bottom of the timing cover and drips to the outside there where you can see it.

HTH

 
Rep Power: 210

a honda dealership probably would have,

i am assuming you had this work done elsewhere,

its most likely your crank seal and/or oil pump seal, so the timing belt needs to come back off to change those,

you said you just changed your oil filter, are you sure this new oil is not dripping down from the oil filter? or could be oil that was still on the engine that dripped down when you removed the old filter?

 
Rep Power: 0

Hi Ramstein,

In your thread you stated that the shop that did the timing belt said you had oil leaking "from the pan". You might consider calling them back and asking them if they saw a leak literally "from the pan" while they had the timing cover off. It's possible that they saw that the oil is leaking from the oil pan gasket when the timing belt was off. I would also ask them if they replaced the crank seal when they did the belt...it adds about an extra 5 minutes to the job. If they didn't do that while it was off I would ask why not...seems to me if they make such a big deal about changing the water pump, why would you not want to also put in a new seal?

I fought an oil leak by myself for almost a year and after a few simple questions on the forum, and some advice from ezone, I was back in business and it hasn't leaked since! It's not a hard job to change the gasket, just kind of time consuming and dirty.