Oil Leak

[camaro_speedemon]

I have an oil leak, and I was thinking. When I first got my car, I didn't know crap about cars. And when it came to any type of maintenance on my car, it just left it up to my Dad. Now that I know a lot more, I have been doing all of the work myself. My question is, when I first got the car with 50K miles on it, I know the previous owner was using Mobil 1. When we first changed the oil, my Dad put heavy weight 20-50 or something like that in it and kept using it until about 30k miles ago. I switched to 10-40 Mobil 1 per recommendations by my friends, and that using heavy weight oil was oil starving some of the bearings. Now I was thinking, could my oil leak be from my Dad switching from synthetic to regular heavy weight oil?

[Colin]

Could be. Where's the leak comin' from? Could be a worn pan gasket or somethin'. Mine was leaking pretty bad, and it turned out to be a rear-main seal, but your car is too new for that to have already gone out. Try some stop-leak or somethin' before you spend hundreds at a mechanic. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Dekay]

If you take it to a mechanic or dealer they can pour some color dye in the all the places that require oil and if there is a leak they can figure out where it's coming from very easy. I don't think you'd be charged a lot if any money to get some dye poured in. Drive it around a couple days and inspect the car again and if you see dye leaking you found your leak.

[camaro_speedemon]

:eek: Stop leak!!! NOOOOOO! that stuff is so bad for your motor its not even funny. It clogs the little holes that need oil. Stay away from stop leak in all forms.
I 85% sure the leak is coming from A)rear main seal b) oil pan seal. I'm due for an oil change soon and I am going to clean up all the oil on my undercarrage and check to see where it is coming from.

[pvtschultz]

It's not stop leak, it is just a dye so the root of the leak can be traced. I'll almost guarentee that it is the rear main. Mine was replaced at 50K and now it is leaking againg at 135K. Seems to be a weak point for the 3.8s and has happened to the majority of the members with the first 3.8s.

[TurboKillaZ]

yeah and those stop leak don't even work, waste of money.duh how is the oil going to stop the leak