# oil leak?



## sicksilver99 (Jun 17, 2004)

so i was looking through my oil change reciepts and on the last 2 in small letters on the bottom of the reciept it mentioned that there was an oil leak discovered. they never told me about it when i was there and my car does not burn oil or run low on oil. the oil pan is oily but it never has dripped oil on the ground. should i worry about this? im adding some oil leak additives to my oil just to be sure. im going to start changing my own oil now anyways, those bastards over filled it last time.


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## Kindfiend (Oct 13, 2004)

sicksilver99 said:


> so i was looking through my oil change reciepts and on the last 2 in small letters on the bottom of the reciept it mentioned that there was an oil leak discovered. they never told me about it when i was there and my car does not burn oil or run low on oil. the oil pan is oily but it never has dripped oil on the ground. should i worry about this? im adding some oil leak additives to my oil just to be sure. im going to start changing my own oil now anyways, those bastards over filled it last time.


Good for you learning to work on cars! Take it slow, make sure you do every step, and use a torque wrench to tighten bolts to spec. This will save you a lot of trouble later on, especially if you are like me and wing it half the time. 
If there is oil on the pan, I would first look at the front main seal. That's a very common spot for our cars to leak. Fortunately, its easy to replace. If you look on the passenger side of the car, underneath where the belts are, you will see a pulley with two belts attached to it. You have to remove the pulley to get to the seal, but it's a good place to check for leaks.

On a side note, those oil additives are no good in my opinion. Fix the problem, not the symptom. Good luck wrenching!


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## sicksilver99 (Jun 17, 2004)

i know how to do the basics on working on my car like a tune-up, and electrical wiring but i have no idea how to replace the front seal (nvmd, found a sticky), but is it worth it to replace, i mean i havent had any problems with it like that.


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## sicksilver99 (Jun 17, 2004)

that would also probably explain my belts squeaking sometimes when i start it up. wouldnt it?


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## Tavel (Aug 21, 2004)

im gonna have to disagree with kinfiend here. some oil additives are effective at repairing minor leaks. one that comes to mind is auto-rx, but any similar agent will do the same thing. 

seals are "inflated" by oil, thus sealing the gaps. (if it doesnt make sense, think of a wooden boat. wood expands when wet, so the gaps between boards are sealed by wetting the wood...simple). sometimes the seals get gunked up and oil can't reach them, at which time they dry out. dry seals dont work. proper oil additives will clean the gunk away, freeing oil to reinflate the seals. 

but again, this only works on MINOR leaks. if the seal is physically damaged/cracked it will not work. 

the belt squeaking could be caused by oil, it could also just be age. you may want to replace them if they're still original.


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## Kindfiend (Oct 13, 2004)

Tavel said:


> im gonna have to disagree with kinfiend here. some oil additives are effective at repairing minor leaks. one that comes to mind is auto-rx, but any similar agent will do the same thing.
> 
> seals are "inflated" by oil, thus sealing the gaps. (if it doesnt make sense, think of a wooden boat. wood expands when wet, so the gaps between boards are sealed by wetting the wood...simple). sometimes the seals get gunked up and oil can't reach them, at which time they dry out. dry seals dont work. proper oil additives will clean the gunk away, freeing oil to reinflate the seals.
> 
> ...


Huh, I always figured those stop leak additives were just thicker oil to help plug up any holes that the lighter oil can get through. Maybe a conditioner for the seals, but no more than that. Anyways, I've heard good things about auto-RX. I can't imagine it could do much harm if you used it. 

And yeah, oil on the belts will definitely shorten their life quickly.


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## Hydrolock (Feb 18, 2005)

Kindfiend said:


> Good for you learning to work on cars! Take it slow, make sure you do every step, and use a torque wrench to tighten bolts to spec. This will save you a lot of trouble later on, especially if you are like me and wing it half the time.
> If there is oil on the pan, I would first look at the front main seal. That's a very common spot for our cars to leak. Fortunately, its easy to replace. If you look on the passenger side of the car, underneath where the belts are, you will see a pulley with two belts attached to it. You have to remove the pulley to get to the seal, but it's a good place to check for leaks.
> 
> On a side note, those oil additives are no good in my opinion. Fix the problem, not the symptom. Good luck wrenching!


Although the front main seal is very common I would start by checking the easier things. Is the valve cover on tight, is the gasket leaking, is the oil filter tight, are the bolts on the oil pan tight, is the gasket leaking, oil cooler lines, drain plug gasket, then I would move to something like the front main seal.


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## sicksilver99 (Jun 17, 2004)

i looked over everything today when i was replacing my spark plugs, and its that front seal. its leaking so very little, not even to drip just get all over the oil pan and the skid plate, and yes theres some oil on the belts. the belts are pretty new though, they look alright, and have been replaced about 15k miles ago. i added some engine restore to my oil, thanks for your help


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## amar67 (Apr 17, 2005)

sicksilver99 said:


> i looked over everything today when i was replacing my spark plugs, and its that front seal. its leaking so very little, not even to drip just get all over the oil pan and the skid plate, and yes theres some oil on the belts. the belts are pretty new though, they look alright, and have been replaced about 15k miles ago. i added some engine restore to my oil, thanks for your help


I just picked up a 98 200sx and have the same exact problem. have lost about 1/3 qt. of oil in about 200 miles of driving and get a constant belt squeal when reving above 3k. When I changed the oil, I cleaned all around the pan, and checked as many of the pan bolts as I could get a socket on. all felt nice and snug. after cleaning, I checked all around and the leak is fresh and directly to the right of the pan right below the pully. 

From reading several threads it looks to be the front main seal and also sounds like it is an easy fix. I would like to do it myself but the haines manual does a very poor job in describing the work. does anyone have a good set of insturctions? also, looks like the belts are in a very tight spot, any suggestions? I believe one person said they did it in an hour. 

Thanks,

amar


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## lshadoff (Nov 26, 2002)

amar67 said:


> From reading several threads it looks to be the front main seal and also sounds like it is an easy fix. I would like to do it myself but the haines manual does a very poor job in describing the work. does anyone have a good set of insturctions? also, looks like the belts are in a very tight spot, any suggestions? I believe one person said they did it in an hour.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> amar


Read the sticky thread at the top of the GA16DE forum:
http://www.nissanforums.com/showthread.php?t=70714

Lew


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## BlackNismo95 (Nov 20, 2004)

amar67 said:


> I just picked up a 98 200sx and have the same exact problem. have lost about 1/3 qt. of oil in about 200 miles of driving and get a constant belt squeal when reving above 3k. When I changed the oil, I cleaned all around the pan, and checked as many of the pan bolts as I could get a socket on. all felt nice and snug. after cleaning, I checked all around and the leak is fresh and directly to the right of the pan right below the pully.
> 
> From reading several threads it looks to be the front main seal and also sounds like it is an easy fix. I would like to do it myself but the haines manual does a very poor job in describing the work. does anyone have a good set of insturctions? also, looks like the belts are in a very tight spot, any suggestions? I believe one person said they did it in an hour.
> 
> ...


I didn't have the time to replace the front seal myself due to work, So I got a mechanic to do it for me, book listing in the labor guide is 1 hour, it took them a little under an hour. while i was right there I had the new belts put on as the other are crap from all the oil. They squeaked almost every time i started the car.


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