# '03 Maxima: Oil Pan leaking-Use Gasket or RTV?



## joefloresnissanforum (Dec 22, 2010)

the gasket area around my oil pan is leaking. I want to fix to eliminate the leak. my question is that i purchased a "oil pan gasket", however the maintenance manual has no mention of using a gasket, but only indicates "Apply a continuous bead of liquid gasket to mating surfaces", so i bought some RTV. my question is which do i use? or do i use both? the way i see it, there are so many things that can go wrong with the application of the RTV and always guessing and wondering if a good seal was established, whereas the gasket seems like a no brainer, i.e. install and be done with it. Both items were about the same price, so no advantage basis costs. does anyone have any experience with either? Would appear RTV is on my oil pan now and is leaking like a sieve - oil staining my driveway, just horrible - lol! Appreciate the feedback on this one ! thanks - jf.


----------



## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

A lot of vehicles come from the factory with only a bead of goop like you describe, and then there are sometimes gaskets available aftermarket.
Use the gasket AND the goop. Put a very small bead on the oil pan itself, around the holes, continuous, just like the manual describes, and put the gasket on that. Only put the goop on the oil pan side of the gasket. Why? Because it's a heck of a lot easier to clean the oil pan while it's out of the engine than it is to clean the bottom of the block that's still in the car!


----------



## Outkast (Jan 29, 2006)

There is no gasket (from Nissan) only RTV


----------



## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

edward12 said:


> You can use both. so that it is not going to come out again. and leak should stop and go on fine.


Dumbass spammer - Selling Honda stuff on a Nissan site...


----------



## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

If you use RTV properly, it'll outlast any cork or rubber gasket. Make sure it's the oil pan that's leaking and not a front or rear crank seal or rear timing cover seal, all of which are more common than oil pan gasket leaks on the VQ engines.


----------

