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Hi there, just noticed this leak today, been 300 miles since I changed the rear main seal as preventative maintenance, had to add 0.7 quarts to get it back up to full. How screwed am I? lol
ahhhh i really don't wanna have to do that all again hahaha, so theres no chance its the oil pan gasket? i used a jack on that part of the oil pan to support the engine, is there any hope that its not the rear main seal?
Okay so I took it for a 5-6 minute test drive, maybe wasn't long enough because the oil pan was hot but I could hold my hand on it, I did see maybe a tiny bit more oil from behind the cover over the flywheel, directly under the rear main seal, however I also noticed that several of the oil pan bolts had oil on them, one was about to drip, the oil looked pretty fresh too, this picture isn't great but it's all can get, this is on the far left side,
Some of your pics are from the timing belt side of the oil pan. The oil pump is over there, I've seen some good leaks from it.
Interesting, so would that the from the oil pump or the pan gasket, either way I'm still probably SOL and need a new rear main, from those pictures is it also worth replacing the oil pan seal?
Timing belt also has to come off to do the oil pump. We're really not going to be able to tell you where the leak is coming from with the pics you've given. You'd have to clean the engine spotless, then run it for a bit and see where the oil is coming from.
Which brand rear main seal did you buy? I replaced mine with a Felpro from the parts store as preventative maintenance when I did my auto to manual swap and I ended up with a pretty bad leak right after. Replaced it with an OEM Honda seal and it's been bone dry ever since.
Learned my lesson there for sure, saving a few bucks buying an aftermarket part for something as critical and difficult to replace as a rear main seal just isn't worth the risk.
Which brand rear main seal did you buy? I replaced mine with a Felpro from the parts store as preventative maintenance when I did my auto to manual swap and I ended up with a pretty bad leak right after. Replaced it with an OEM Honda seal and it's been bone dry ever since.
Learned my lesson there for sure, saving a few bucks buying an aftermarket part for something as critical and difficult to replace as a rear main seal just isn't worth the risk.
yeah maybe thats contributing to the issue, cause the one i got was 15 aud and the honda one is about 45 i think.
yep so i drove it again and it pretty much looks like its coming from the rear main seal and then rolling down the oil pan to below the fill bolt, seems to be quite slow for the moment, drove it another 40 miles and id say probably 10ml came out, so ill keep driving it until i get a honda rear main seal and go from there, if there are any more leaks ill do the pan and pump seals. ill post on this thread when thats all done, hopefully in less than 2 months this time haha! thanks for the help everyone!
Bottom of my oil drain pan after draining out ~ .45 quarts of extra oil I added ~ 40 miles ago, now the oil is to the full line on the dip stick, how bad is this / is this my fault? Oil is about 1500 miles old, ever since I've owned the car ~3800 miles, the oil level has never gone below half way between the min / max lines. I never checked the old oil for metal bits when I changed it 1500 miles ago, I believe the oil had about 5000 miles on it when I changed it
Last edited by Millsy088; Feb 4, 2022 at 01:42 AM.
Bottom of my oil drain pan after draining out ~ .45 quarts of extra oil I added ~ 40 miles ago, now the oil is to the full line on the dip stick, how bad is this / is this my fault? Oil is about 1500 miles old, ever since I've owned the car ~3800 miles, the oil level has never gone below half way between the min / max lines. I never checked the old oil for metal bits when I changed it 1500 miles ago, I believe the oil had about 5000 miles on it when I changed it
If that's all glitter I think you have some issues. Never saw anything like that come out of a healthy engine. I cut my old oil filter open after every oil change to inspect it and I've never seen any visible glitter in it. I do have a magnetic oil drain plug and it gets a very light coating of metal dust on it, but none of the pieces are anywhere near big enough to be visible by themselves.
Any odd noises from the engine? Is the glitter magnetic? If not, it's probably bearing material. If you catch it in time you might be able to save it with a rebuild.
Did anything terrible happen to that engine since you owned it? I know you didn't let the oil run low but did it ever overheat or blow a head gasket or something? If not, the damage was almost certainly caused by a previous owner.
If that's all glitter I think you have some issues. Never saw anything like that come out of a healthy engine. I cut my old oil filter open after every oil change to inspect it and I've never seen any visible glitter in it. I do have a magnetic oil drain plug and it gets a very light coating of metal dust on it, but none of the pieces are anywhere near big enough to be visible by themselves.
Any odd noises from the engine? Is the glitter magnetic? If not, it's probably bearing material. If you catch it in time you might be able to save it with a rebuild.
Did anything terrible happen to that engine since you owned it? I know you didn't let the oil run low but did it ever overheat or blow a head gasket or something? If not, the damage was almost certainly caused by a previous owner.
I have no reason to believe that the head gasket has blown, and the car has never got even close to overheating, the only time I've made a mistake was overfilling the engine, the oil was way above the fill line, so I drained out about .45 quarts and now it's a few mm above the fill line, is that a problem? As I've heard if you fill too much It can whip up the oil and make it foamy, but would that have caused an oil pressure light? Because mine never came on. It's possible that I overfilled it by more and it leaked out while I drove the 40 miles, so when I got home the remaining oil I needed to remove was .45 quarts, when I topped the oil up too high, it was at half way between min and max and then I added .73 quarts, which I then removed said .45 quarts after 40 miles. I hope that makes sense
I have no reason to believe that the head gasket has blown, and the car has never got even close to overheating, the only time I've made a mistake was overfilling the engine, the oil was way above the fill line, so I drained out about .45 quarts and now it's a few mm above the fill line, is that a problem? As I've heard if you fill too much It can whip up the oil and make it foamy, but would that have caused an oil pressure light? Because mine never came on. It's possible that I overfilled it by more and it leaked out while I drove the 40 miles, so when I got home the remaining oil I needed to remove was .45 quarts, when I topped the oil up too high, it was at half way between min and max and then I added .73 quarts, which I then removed said .45 quarts after 40 miles. I hope that makes sense
Should be fine. Slightly overfilling by 1/2 quart or so isn't a big deal, any more than that and I'd drain some out. If the oil is significantly overfilled, the crankshaft can in fact drag through it and foam it up. This probably will not cause enough of a drop in oil pressure for the light to come on, but it is still bad because there will be excessive wear when you have air bubbles between parts instead of pure oil.
That's certainly not what caused those metal shavings though, I'd be more concerned with figuring out where they came from.
Should be fine. Slightly overfilling by 1/2 quart or so isn't a big deal, any more than that and I'd drain some out. If the oil is significantly overfilled, the crankshaft can in fact drag through it and foam it up. This probably will not cause enough of a drop in oil pressure for the light to come on, but it is still bad because there will be excessive wear when you have air bubbles between parts instead of pure oil.
That's certainly not what caused those metal shavings though, I'd be more concerned with figuring out where they came from.
Okay well at least I'm not to blame hahaha, so I asked a mechanic mate of mine and he said that was expected / acceptable for a car with 115,000 miles which doesn't sound right to me as nowhere else I've seen has said that it's okay, I'm gonna get a second opinion though. He also said that the engine is only going to last until 185,000 miles before It will start to break down? Also to note, there was some milky oil at the bottom of the drain pan, not very much and he also said that is normal too? It doesn't sound right to me
Okay well at least I'm not to blame hahaha, so I asked a mechanic mate of mine and he said that was expected / acceptable for a car with 115,000 miles which doesn't sound right to me as nowhere else I've seen has said that it's okay, I'm gonna get a second opinion though. He also said that the engine is only going to last until 185,000 miles before It will start to break down? Also to note, there was some milky oil at the bottom of the drain pan, not very much and he also said that is normal too? It doesn't sound right to me
I have done a lot of oil changes and never saw anything like that from a healthy engine. 115K miles isn't much for any decent, properly maintained engine either. No way to predict how long it will last, but I doubt it would make it to 185K miles the way it seems to be wearing. That metal came from something important and those particles are abrasive and will continue to cause damage if you keep driving it this way.
Milky oil isn't good. Is the coolant level dropping? These engines are somewhat known for blowing head gaskets, although the failure rate isn't ridiculously high. Water/coolant in the oil could definitely cause that kind of excessive wear.
If you plan to try to salvage this engine, I would stop driving it until you figure out what is going on. Are used D17's available for a decent price over there?
I have done a lot of oil changes and never saw anything like that from a healthy engine. 115K miles isn't much for any decent, properly maintained engine either. No way to predict how long it will last, but I doubt it would make it to 185K miles the way it seems to be wearing. That metal came from something important and those particles are abrasive and will continue to cause damage if you keep driving it this way.
Milky oil isn't good. Is the coolant level dropping? These engines are somewhat known for blowing head gaskets, although the failure rate isn't ridiculously high. Water/coolant in the oil could definitely cause that kind of excessive wear.
If you plan to try to salvage this engine, I would stop driving it until you figure out what is going on. Are used D17's available for a decent price over there?
Yeah I agree, and Im pretty sure engine prices are quite high over here, I don't think it matters anyways, I asked another mechanic mate and he agrees that it doesn't look good, and I'm taking my car there now to drop the pan and see what it's like. If it's not awful then I'll drive it until its knocking on heavens door lol. Although that's probably gonna be pretty soon the way it's looking.
Yeah I agree, and Im pretty sure engine prices are quite high over here, I don't think it matters anyways, I asked another mechanic mate and he agrees that it doesn't look good, and I'm taking my car there now to drop the pan and see what it's like. If it's not awful then I'll drive it until its knocking on heavens door lol. Although that's probably gonna be pretty soon the way it's looking.
Cool, keep us posted. Depending on what's wrong, it may be salvageable still. While the oil pan is off, I'd pull the rod bearing caps and the main bearing girdle and see if any of the bearings are obviously worn/failing. If so, new bearings could be a cheap solution as long as the crankshaft isn't badly scored. The good thing about these engines is they don't use any torque to yield bolts, so checking the bearings won't cost you anything.
How long do you plan to keep this car? If you want to keep it for a while, you may want to just rebuild the engine. If you replace the bearings, rings, oil pump, and all the gaskets/seals, and clean everything up, you could likely get a lot more life out of it for not much money as long as you can do the work yourself. Great project and learning experience too since these engines are so easy and cheap to fix and of course we are here to help if you need it.
Cool, keep us posted. Depending on what's wrong, it may be salvageable still. While the oil pan is off, I'd pull the rod bearing caps and the main bearing girdle and see if any of the bearings are obviously worn/failing. If so, new bearings could be a cheap solution as long as the crankshaft isn't badly scored. The good thing about these engines is they don't use any torque to yield bolts, so checking the bearings won't cost you anything.
How long do you plan to keep this car? If you want to keep it for a while, you may want to just rebuild the engine. If you replace the bearings, rings, oil pump, and all the gaskets/seals, and clean everything up, you could likely get a lot more life out of it for not much money as long as you can do the work yourself. Great project and learning experience too since these engines are so easy and cheap to fix and of course we are here to help if you need it.
hmmm well me and the second mechanic drained the oil and then dropped the pan, the drained oil did have a small amount of the gold flecks in it, but the pan had very little, he said that's not worth fixing and that it should go 50-100,000 km before it blows, so I'm not sure. I'll change the oil and filter, then Ill check the oil for metal in ~1000 miles. Thanks a ton for the advice though!
hmmm well me and the second mechanic drained the oil and then dropped the pan, the drained oil did have a small amount of the gold flecks in it, but the pan had very little, he said that's not worth fixing and that it should go 50-100,000 km before it blows, so I'm not sure. I'll change the oil and filter, then Ill check the oil for metal in ~1000 miles. Thanks a ton for the advice though!
I wonder if at some point before you bought the car there was some catastrophic failure like a head gasket, spun bearing, etc and the issue was fixed but the metal shavings weren't cleaned out. Hopefully you cleaned the glitter out of the oil pan while it was off, so if nothing is wearing abnormally there shouldn't be significant particles again but definitely keep an eye on it. If something is wearing abnormally, much better to fix it while it's still salvageable. Keep us posted.
Yeah I have never been a fan of the gasket for the steel oil pan on these cars, it seems problematic. According to the service manual you are actually supposed to use silicone in some spots around the corners to prevent leaks but people usually don't. The aluminium oil pan that comes on the VTEC engines just uses silicone instead of a gasket and is a much better design IMO.
I wonder if at some point before you bought the car there was some catastrophic failure like a head gasket, spun bearing, etc and the issue was fixed but the metal shavings weren't cleaned out. Hopefully you cleaned the glitter out of the oil pan while it was off, so if nothing is wearing abnormally there shouldn't be significant particles again but definitely keep an eye on it. If something is wearing abnormally, much better to fix it while it's still salvageable. Keep us posted.
Yeah I have never been a fan of the gasket for the steel oil pan on these cars, it seems problematic. According to the service manual you are actually supposed to use silicone in some spots around the corners to prevent leaks but people usually don't. The aluminium oil pan that comes on the VTEC engines just uses silicone instead of a gasket and is a much better design IMO.
Yeah that's likely what occured here, also the mechanic said it looks like someone tried to reseal the same gasket with silicone, so maybe it was already leaking and was just resealed. Ill be cleaning out the pan with degreaser once the gasket arrives, finding parts is a real bitch over here haha!
Yeah that's likely what occured here, also the mechanic said it looks like someone tried to reseal the same gasket with silicone, so maybe it was already leaking and was just resealed. Ill be cleaning out the pan with degreaser once the gasket arrives, finding parts is a real bitch over here haha!
That oil pan may not be the easiest thing to clean. Just remembered that those steel oil pans don't have a removable baffle like the aluminium pans do. Just take your time and get it as clean as you can.
I'd remove the oil pump pickup tube and wash it out also. The screen in it likely contains glitter and cleaning it only takes a few more minutes once the oil pan is off. You'd be surprised how much stuff comes out of those screens even when they look pretty clean. Just make sure you don't damage its gasket.
That oil pan may not be the easiest thing to clean. Just remembered that those steel oil pans don't have a removable baffle like the aluminium pans do. Just take your time and get it as clean as you can.
I'd remove the oil pump pickup tube and wash it out also. The screen in it likely contains glitter and cleaning it only takes a few more minutes once the oil pan is off. You'd be surprised how much stuff comes out of those screens even when they look pretty clean. Just make sure you don't damage its gasket.
Alright will do, and I'll post a pic of whatever is in the pickup once I've got it off. the mechanic said we should put gasket maker all around the oil pan and then drop the gasket on top of that, I can't imagine that would do any harm so might as well
Okay so in the end this is the conclusion we came to: at some point, probably close to when the car was sold to me, the head gasket blew and warped the head, explaining why everything in there was perfect and looked brand new ( no oil colour) and then because of the blown head gasket and warped head, the car spun a bearing, causing the metal glitter, and also explaining why the oil pan leaked as it wasn't resealed better. So overall not great but car should be okay ish for a while. Thanks.
