i’m pretty sure i have a leak in my oil pan, perhaps the oil pan gasket…but its not exactly EASY to get at…bottom half of my header has to come off, etc… i’m also unsure whether its the gasket or not, and i know there is a certain way you must tighten the oil pan in order for it to properly seal…
so, in about a month i’m bringin my car to my mechanic to have my tranny rebuilt and new clutch installed…should i just have him look for the leak, perhaps replace the oil pan gasket? i’m sorta tight on money, so i’m iffy on whether or not i should let him do it and pay for it, or chance it and do it myself…I’ve been loosing oil, and i’m pretty sure i’m not burning, i’ve been monitoring for awhile now and it seems to have been leaking all around and on the oil pan…
so guys, what are your opinions on what i should do?
I have the exact same problem… I’m riding the tails of this post for an answer.
I’m pretty sure I cannot fix this myself due to the mess and work involved (I live in an apt. bldg… so I’m sure to be evicted if I get oil on the ground in mass quantities!!). Any advice is appreciated by us both though!!!
Get yourself some kind of degreaser and clean the areas of the leak. Also, clean the head gasket, valve cover gasket, oil pressure sending switch, and oil filter area. When looking for this leak, you must start from the top (which is the valve cover).
After a thorough cleaning, drive the car for 20min. and check for leaks again (starting from the top of the engine). If you do determine that it is the oil pan gasket, DIY replacement is fairly easy. The removal of the I-beam support and the bottom half of the header is pretty much all you need to do to access the oil pan. It’s been a long time since I’ve done mine, so I can’t remember every detail of the replacement. But those two parts are the hardest to remove. Just have some Liquid wrench handy, and use a Johnny bar whenever you can.
If you guys need help, I’m in the Montreal area and will be available sometime in June. Give me a shout if you need a second hand.
My oil pan leaks when I stomp on the breaks hard. The oil oozes out and drips onto my header and starts to smoke. Smells awful. The oil pan gasket was $16 US and is very easy to install. As the previous poster said, all you have to do is remove the brace and the lower part of the header.
Get a manual too. It shows in detail how to do it. That cost about another $15.
I replaced mine before, well just because I cracked my oil pan, but the BOTTOM CROSSMEMBER brace will have to be removed…the bottom portion of the Header as well…
there are plenty of bolts, drain your oil, then do it, there will still be oil in the pan just be careful not to spill it…
Once you are done, clean the pan, get the gasket install it with HONDA BOND!! DO not use anything else!!! Buy it from Honda I think its about $12.00 U.S.
BE LIBERAL with it, I was tryin to conserve it and 2 months later, it started leaking again…SO SPLURGE That Hondabond on it and you should be good to go…
My friend works at JIFFY LUBE, so I was standing up underneath the car doing it, cause they have a basement, that is the easiest…But you should be able to do it yourself in about 2 hours…late
When my car was leaking oil after some checking out it turned out that some of the bolts for the oil pan had come loose.I tightened them up that took car of some of the problem.The second thing that I found was that the oil pressure switch was leaking as well.I replaced the switch and now everything is fine.Keep in mind that the oil pan gasket is just a rubber ring.The oil pan can only be tightened so much because there are hard points that the pan rests up agaisnt to prevent overtorquing and crushing the gasket.
