After several years of putting up with an oil leak that seems to be getting worse I've decided to fix it. It is now leaking quite a bit as I have to wipe off the oil drip pan about once every couple of weeks now.

Its dripping from behind the passenger side wheel. The bottom of my car is a complete oily mess and it is dripping off around the oil pan near the OPS unit all the way up to the bottom of the A/C compressor. It's dripping from several points in-between those 2 places as well. It seems to be all over the control arms as well. Well my ball joints and LCA bushings are shot and causing all kinds of noise when I turn the wheel so I ordered new parts to replace those but I would like to fix the oil leaks first so the oil does not ruin those new parts.

So today I got under the car with a roll of paper towels and 2 cans of brake cleaner and tried to clean it up the best I could to determine where the leak is coming from. Got everything semi-clean and ran the engine for about 10 minutes and noticed the main point it seems to be dripping from is above and to the right of the OPS unit. Also when I looked further up I see a few drops forming where the Exhaust connects. Also the power steering pump looks pretty wet.

I'm kinda short on money and I know when it comes to oil leaks 90% of the cost to fix it is labor so I'm going to try to tackle this myself.

Here's a few pics from my cell phone that I snapped

http://img199.imageshack.us/f/20110226175936044.jpg/

http://img59.imageshack.us/i/20110226180133704.jpg/


(How do I get the pics to show up in the actual thread? I tried adding the image tags around it and it didnt show up and I cant add attachments)

I know its a long shot but does anyone have any suggestions on where this leak is coming from?

 

If theres oil as high as the exhaust manifolds you need valve cover gaskets. Your upper oil pan may be leaking as well. Oil pressure sender is common too. Hopefully your TC cover o-rings are OK, that's a PITA.

 

Replace your Valve Cover gaskets, your CPS O ring on the passenger side and... i think thats it?

 

Double check your power steering hoses too. I thought I had an oil leak for the longest time, turns out it was a power steering fluid leak.

 

Nice! Good info thanks! Already replaced the Oil pressure sender and cleaned up that area well and don't see any more oil dripping from it. I do see where it may be leaking from the upper oil pan but it also may just be dripping from further up, kinda hard to tell.

So i'm gonna start with the Rear valve cover gasket and plan on doing this today so would like to get the gaskets locally. Any recommendations? I see autozone has the a Felpro kit for about $60 which includes the front and all the grommets and spark plug tube seals. Would that kit be ok or should I go with something else?

Also is the CPS the crankshaft position sensor on the oil pan or the camshaft positioning sensor further up?

Sorry for all the questions I'm kinda new to this stuff, I've just done basic maintenance with my car.

 

I tend to stay OEM gaskets if time allows. However, I have heard nothing but good about Felpro.

Crankshaft position sensor is directly behind and under your crankshaft pulley. It is a piece of cake to remove and install. BTW it does not have any direct access to oil. It is simply a magnetic sensor that reads off of the crank snout. If it is wet with oil, it is something else leaking onto it. For example, front crank seal.

The camshaft position senor is up top and very easy to get to. It is very common for the CPS o-ring to dry up and allow oil to leak past.

 

Ahh ok cool thanks. Also I am leaking power steering fluid somewhere as well as the reservoir goes down about a quarter inch every few weeks. The only place that looks suspicious is at the actual power steering pump but the whole pump is wet so kind hard to tell if thats power steering fluid or oil dripping on it. Are power steering hoses and o-rings fairly simple to replace?

 

Yes, power steering hoses are fairly simple. However, it sure doesn't hurt to have a nice set of line wrenches to avoid rounding the fittings at the end of the pressure hoses. Inspect your rack & pinion also. They can leak from the seals inside the boots. If it doesn't look wet at either end of the rubber boots at the tie rod ends, then your rack & pinion is probably ok. No need to take the boots loose.

 

I got a FelPro VC gasket set for 45$ from Federated auto parts/Fisher auto parts

 

Was that on line or in store?

 

In Store.