Car Oil Leak

[NightrainSrt4]

Blargh, just another thing to go wrong.

03 SRT-4 leaking oil, and not the usual blowback through the PCV pooling in the intercooler. By the looks of it at least a tablespoon a day.

The problem is there is almost no room in the engine bay, and my car is ~3" off the ground in the front. The oil is dripping from the corner of the oil pan, but I can't get in there to see if its falling from some where higher, as it could be from the tubes to/from the turbo.

Funny this starts after an oil change at Valvoline. I'd do it myself but in the city and not allowed to do car stuff in the apartment parking lot. They get done with it and then tell me it was ~$100. So on top of that crappy price looks like there is a good chance they also stripped the drain plug.

Any ideas on what else to check? This weekend I will probably rip out the intake/battery to get a better look top down near the turbo.

[x88x]

I'd do it myself but in the city and not allowed to do car stuff in the apartment parking lot.

Ugh, I know what that's like...about a month before I moved out of my old apartment, the owners sent out a bunch of new parking rules...one of which was that if you were seen working on your car in the parking lot, it would be towed. -_^ And not because of safety concerns..nooo...because it would 'damage the image of the complex'...riiight. Same reason we couldn't have anything but a couple pieces of lawn furniture on the balconies. Apparently the image they were shooting for was a bunch of mechanically incompetent shut-ins. :P ...I am soo happy to actually have a place to work on stuff now. :D

Anyways, back to the actual question.. That sucks. The only thing I can think of besides a stripped drain plug is a failing oilpan seal. Does Valvoline have any sort of warranty on their service? If you can prove that it was their service that caused the problem you might be able to get them to fix it for free.

[Oneslowz28]

If they stripped the drain plug take it back and demand they replace it. Seriously.

I don't remember much about the SRT4's but does the turbo have oil lines?

[NightrainSrt4]

I don't know if they stripped the plug, as I can't get anywhere near it to check. I can just tell that it is the area, whether it is it or dripping onto it from above I can't tell yet either.

The oil pan is aluminum and the plug is steel, so it wouldn't take much to strip the threads.

It's been years since I've poked around back there but there should be oil feed/return lines as well as coolant lines. So definitely something to check.

EDIT: I'd rather just get a new pan if they jacked it up than have them touch it again. The problem is just getting under the car to get a look at anything. Even if I had ramps I don't see how I could even get it on them without scraping the entire front end of the car. I'd have to drive it 100+ miles home just to see if my uncle has a pair of 2x8s. I can't stand being under a car that isn't fully on the ground or on a lift. *cringe*.

[SXRguyinMA]

if you're willing you can come by my house and we can take a look at it. I've got a nice freshly paved smooth driveway and a full toolbox :)

[mDust]

They get done with it and then tell me it was ~$100.

$50.00 for an oil change is obscene, $100.00 is...obscene x2 I guess.:? I'd have been so pissed that I'd have set fire to their garage.

I'm not allowed to change my oil or work on my car in my apartment parking lot either...but I do both quite frequently. It's amazing what you can get away with when nobody of importance is looking!


If they stripped the drain plug take it back and demand they replace it. Seriously.No, really, this ^. Make the clowns pay. If you don't want them to touch it, take it back and show them what they did and take photographs. Take it to another mechanic so you have a professional witness and get a quote to repair it. Then take the quote to the Valvoline shop and demand that the manager pay for it. Don't threaten him with a lawsuit if he refuses, get his district manager or owner on the phone and threaten that guy with a lawsuit. (Cost of damages + court fees + something for your extreme inconvenience)
A small oil change place destroyed my brothers' engine because they didn't put the drain plug back in all the way. The engine didn't even make it home. A couple 'courteous' court threats later and they bought him a like-new rebuilt engine...so those kinds of places listen if you sound like you know what you're talking about. They usually aren't the brightest types anyway if you know what I mean.;)

[NightrainSrt4]

If it is the drain plug then I might go talk to them. Have to wait till Saturday to take a look at it when management isn't around.

Will, my uncle is coming up Sat to help take a look at it. If we can't figure it out I might have to take you up on that offer, with a 6-pack tossed in for the troubles (or some other beverage / snack product haha). I'll wait and take a good look at it this weekend before driving around too much though. It isn't throwing any codes and oil seems to not be low, yet.

[Snowman]

Did they just do a sh!t job when they changed the oil and its just used oil that they got all over your bay or in nooks or crannies since your not low

[CorsePerVita]

Keep the oil level where it needs to be. Easiest way is going to be to get the car up on jacks or on ramps and look since you can't get under the car from where it's at.

Stripping the drain plug is a possibility. But without looking at it precisely and knowing what it is, it could be anything from seals, to an oil pan gasket to the drain plug.

That said, if you are able to jack it up and see exactly where it came from and determine it is from that, most definitely agreed they need to fix it and make it right. Anyone working service on a car should know proper torque and feel enough not to strip one of those if that's the case.

As far as oil level, does the dipstick indicate ANY oil loss? Or when you say "not low" do you mean it's lost some but isn't at the low mark?

[altec]

Are you sure it isn't dripping from the oil filter down the pan? If it just happened after the change, that is one of the more likely causes. Either they tore the seal on the filter, or the old one stuck to the engine, and the parts replacers didn't notice.

[NightrainSrt4]

Valvoline didn't tighten the oil filter. Couldn't get under it so I brought it to a garage. The filter was not tightened at all and was leaking oil on everything.

By today the oil was low. Not enough to set of the light, and the car wasn't throwing any codes, but it was low.

I just had them do an oil change with Mobil1 synthetic for peace of mind. The Valvoline oil change was only a couple hundred miles into it, but the car had been sitting for a while which is why I hadn't noticed until now.

[Snowman]

The oil light is not something to trust.. in my experience by the time it throws a light you could already be doing damage also a lot of lights are based on pressure and not actual level and if you are having issues you could have the pressure with out the quantity of oil you need or vice versa no pressure and plenty of oil.

[NightrainSrt4]

I know the light isn't something to trust. The car hadn't been driven for a while before I found the leak, and hadn't been driven since I found it. Topped it off before went the two miles to the garage. It was still above the minimum level on the dipstick, but towards the low end.

I keep an eye on my oil level, but not when it sits as I'm not around. It's been driven maybe, maybe, 2k miles in the past year.