oil leak with photos!!! to identify problem

[hold-on]

I think my car has always had this leak, however recently I made the mistake of running fully syth 10 -30 through far too thin!!! I have now gone back to shell helix 20-50 mineral. The prob has not gone away...could some one please please help identify the prob whats needed and how to fix!!!!!!
Would be muchly appreciated!!!!!!!
I have friends who are mechanically minded which i will get to help once I know the prob

cheers
guys & gals

 

[Immortality]

looks like the rear main seal. not the easiest of jobs to do however.

 

[Harvs82]

I'd also suggest that the real main seal has gone...

There also seems to be a LOT of oil on the transmission pan... are you sure that its not leaking as well?

 

[sv9946]

yep thats the rear main seal that seals the end of the crankshaft from letting oil out like yours is doing now replacing involves removal of the transmission and torque converter if auto and removal of clutch if manual and removal of flywheel to replace the seal which comes already mounted in the aluminium plate this plate that holds the rear main seal also seal's the cooling system at the back of the block so a cooling system flush is also necessary at the same time, however to get the seal and plate to seal properly a special tool to hold the plate and seal in the correct position whillst putting the new bolts in (so you need the special tool to do the job). also whenever i do a rear main seal i always remove the sump and replace sump gasket just in case a slight weap is coming from there and even though i always use a new gasket as a preventitive measure i always use a slight smear of ultra grey on both sides of the gasket to make sure it will never leak again, unfortunately you cannot do this to the rear main seal.

at the end of the day this is a job best left to a professional a plate from holden with the seal already in the palte costs around $100 and a sump gasket around $40 but there is a lot of labour involved and without the proper tool to line up the seal you are simply wasting your time

a mechanic will usually charge around $700-$800 to do the job and considering there is $50 worth of coolant involved around $30 worth of oil involved and $100 for plate $40 for sump gasket and a shitload of labour thats pretty fair. you can actually do the rear main without the tool to line it up but it is all guess work and the tool from holden costs about $1000 and they don't like to sell them to anybody but a dealer so make sure the person who does it has one of these tools(my work has one and its not a holden dealer but it was hard to get it) also the sump is really hard to get off the car this job is really for someone who owns a hoist anyhow let us know how you go with it all good luck

 

[hkmonaro68]

You cant diagnose that oil leak from those pics,
There could be oil leaking down from the back of the, rocker covers or valleys or even head gaskets.
There is oil on the sump and on the cross braces which would indicate that the oil is running down, and in front of the rear main, so possibly sump gasket.
If you do the rear main, by the holden manual, you need to remove the sump to properly align the rear plate.
If there is red oil around the transmission, possible front pump seal or convertor o ring.

 

[digisol]

Yep, gravity usually denotes where it comes from, it runs down, the fan and forward movement pushes it back, if the bellhousing is clean the top end is OK, and when the rocker covers leak it will usually run onto the back header so smoke will be smelt when ya stop.

The cover can also hide a leaky front seal on the auto, if that's stuffed you up for big dollars, either way rear main means engine out, reality says it depends on how much oil drips on the concrete in 10 mins, to be honest a couple of drops from on a hot engine is not really that bad, but a dozen or so may give some added concern.

Although as one pic is of just the tranny sump it is also possible that gasket is stuffed, or a combination of several places, tighten up the bolts a "little", some may be loose ? tranny also leak from the selector shaft, a stuffed O ring there is the problem, they do tend to leak from the front if the cover is not moved forward when the sump is put on, "the pros" did it to mine with three cork gaskets before they put on a good neoprene one, still leaks a tad from the input of the tranny, but I can live with a couple drops, it would take ten years before one had to worry about low oil.

 

[hold-on]

all sounds very interesting, and from what I read the majority suggest rear main seal.....does this mean the engine is on the way out or just a matter of loosing a tad of oil??????

 

[maginoodle]

if it is rear main, your only loosing oil. Is there oil on the front of the motor or any where else? your timing seal or sump gasket could be leaking. I would degrease the motor and go for a short drive and try and see where its coming from. as long as it isnt dripping you cant get a canary for it.

 

[hold-on]

sounds like a plan, will degrease and go for a spin in the weekend. canary??? whats that????? I have had people suggest a stop leak product??? basically the car is immaculate inside and outside. motor seems to be running awesome, just this damn annoying leak!!!!!car has done 172,000km

 

[maginoodle]

canary is a defect. they put a yellow sticker on the windscreen