Oil leak mystery, with pics

[cwapface]

Damn my car is having problems...The story is that I went on a short mountain run and when I got to the top, oil smoke was coming out from under the bottom of the car. Not under the engine, under the middle of the car. Wtf is right. I put it up on jacks to change the tranny fluid and it looked like oil spewed out all over the bottom of the crossmember, transmission, and a little bit on the exhaust where it burned. I tried to recreate the leak so I could watch it happen but of course there wasn't a single drop when it was under scrutiny. Take a look at these pics and see if you can give me any clue as to where I should check

The biggest oil buildup was on the crossmember and the driver's rear side of the undercover. Any ideas?

 

[Boostedstr8six]

Is it engine oil? If it is then it might be coming from the j-tube plate or the big crank case vent tube that goes up to the oil fill port. Could also be one of the oil seals on the front of the engine.

 

[sathu]

O yeah... I know what you mean. I have the same problem right now, but mine is on the left and I have to freaking idea where it leaking from. My cam seal isn't leaking and for some reason the oil spray all the way to the brake dust cover on the right wheel. It's not CPS seal since there is no wet oil when the car stop. I even replaced my entire oil line tube under there and it still leak. The only way left to fix this is to overhaul the engine and fix the valve oil seal also .

If only there is a dye that can be use in oil to see where it's leaking from.

 

[ddmcse]

how about power steering fluid ?
check the level in the ps tank

 

[supraman7mgte]

I have a similar leak on the passenger side.It's constant and won't go away. The only thing I can figure is that it might be the oil pan gasket. Really fun to change with the motor still in it. I would suggest Gunking the hell out of it and then throw in some Simple Green, Wash and repeat. THEN pressure wash the f#@k out it and drop it down. Without driving it,let it idle to normal temp,and then see if any drops well,,,drop

 

[heavyearly87t]

Looks alot like mine before the rebuild. All my front seals needed to be replaced. They had started to leak down the back of the timing belt cover and looked like it was coming out the front of the oil pan.

do the wash & run thing mentioned above but don't use a pressure sprayer if can avoid it. Simple green & let sit for a while then a regular garden sprayer will work ok.

Url

 

[williamb82]

its either a front main seal, or possible a gakset between the block and timing cover blew. i had that happen on my 7m. too much blowby. im not gonna fix it either. id have to pull the head and pan to do it right, so just building the new engine to swap in it. then ill tear this one apart for a stock rebuild as a spare.
william

 

[cwapface]

thanks for everybody's input, I am going to check out the crank case vent because that hose and all the pcv hoses are old and cracking as far as I know. If that doesn't fix it then I will just add it to the 'why i should swap in a 1jz' list

 

[1989MKIII]

i say, just be done with it and do the 1jz swap anyway. thats what im doing

 

[Cedrock15]

wow...that looks exatly like my car since last week when i was driving..XXX mph now have a leak just like that and most of it is right below timing belt cover/ a little getting on the belts. Did you find out what the problem was?

 

[Untouchable7mgte]

i bet ya its one of the turbo gaskets. My problem was the lower oil gasket leaked like crazy. check and see if the pipe for the oil is soaked in oil. hope that helps.