I have a leaking upper oil pan on a 96 Maxima. I have verified that the leak is near the two o-ring seals, between the upper pan & block. It is really an ooze type of leak; it will form drips on the ground while running.

I have had the entire upper pan off twice and re-sealed it with new o-rings and Ultra Grey silicone. I have cleaned the mating surfaces very well for each repair and waited until the next day to fill with oil. Both times the leak has re-appeared almost instantly. I have examined the pan and block surface for imperfections or cracks. They look fine.

Has anyone ever had this sort of trouble sealing their oil pan, or am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions? I don't think a 3rd time will help unless I do something really different.

 

ultra grey.......not a good choice use permatex copper its thicker and tackier and seals way better than the grey or if you really want that sucker onthere tight than use window weld polyurethane if you still leak with either combo than your oil pan is warped severley

 

I would agree with you if I didn't have years of good results with ultra grey.

But then again, you very well could be right about the sealer. I did look closely at the oil pan surface though. Don't think it is warped at all. It seemed to pull up to the block evenly.

 

i do know the window weld is a 100% to work

 

I've had this issue on one customer's car and not on any others I've done. The difference? I didn't remove all traces of oil from either of the surfaces that both o-rings come into contact with. Very important step...

 

How did you tighten the pan down ... did you tourqe them to spec? Did you criss cross your bolt pattern? Not tryin to imply anything, just tying to get more info to help.

I agree ... the sealer may work, but as Nis says ... make sure you cleaned the surfaces well. Use a degreaser and make sure you get it all cleaned off (the degreaser residue) before you mate your surfaces again. Then, try again and see. G'luck ... keep us posted, this is interesting.

 

I have built 3 or 4 VE's and have had the exact same problem and i have also had issues with sealing the timing chain covers too. and i am very picky about how i prep and seal. i have used regular black rtv and then tried the "right stuff" gasket maker.

 

i agree with the window weld for fixing the leak, but you will not have fun if you ever have to remove the pan. i am a huge fan of indian head gasket made by permitex, clean both sides with a degreaser like micro X or carb cleaner. then apply a even coat to both pieces.

 

Workarounds FTL. Read more carefully guys. It's not the gasket maker's fault. It's the two o-rings that aren't sealing properly.

 

True. be careful when seating those two o rings. I ran into this issue but cleaned the surfaces well, and was very careful when putting the upper oil pan on to make sure those o-rings dont move.

 

im working on 98 nissan maxima replace the upper oil pan gasket and o rings.its still leaking from the area where the o rings go,,the o rings that came off where flat rubber washer looking and orange color,went to dealer and they gave me round type o rings diffrent than what came off,and still leaks .like the oil pressure is to strong and pushes out the seals and then pushes its way out the gasket sealer.i tryed using the grey sealocone and the black and let it sit over nite before i put oil in it,,i was thinking if i made a grove on the area where the rings go so that if the oil rings leak a little it can leak inside the oil pan,cause the surface that the o ring go on is the same suface the oil pan gasket(sealant) they share the same surface,,there was someone on here that had the same problem, but they didnt replay if they found the problem,,if someone can help,,please thanks,,its not to hard to remove the upper oil pan after doing it three times,,and yes i clean the sufaces and not cracked warped,,please help

 

make sure you are using the correct torque sequence and torque specs ive never removed a vq upper oil pan but have done many sr20de oil pans and have seen that if it is not torqued in the right sequence it will leak no matter how much silicone you put on you can view the fsm for the sequence for free on nico forums

 

Those O-rings sometimes can be tricky to keep in their place as you put the oil pan on, if its not in place then naturally it will leak. If everthing else checks out fine and your using a good sealant then the problem can lie else where. Was the timing case taken off.?

have you/they visually seen the leak come from that area? or was is dripping from somewhere else and then land on that to make it look like there is leaking? (has happened before)

Torque sequence I personally dont feel is the cause of the leak, I've never torqued a VQ oil pan in a sequence and never had a leak. I did it in a criss cross fashion but never checked the fsm. Installed an upper oil pan at least 7 times.

 

It may actually be the timing chain cover leaking, not the upper oil pan.
That's common in our cars, an upper oil pan leak is not common.
It's sometimes hard to determine where the leak is actually coming from, that whole area is tough to see. My buddies I30 pissed oil out the side. His mechanic told him it was the upper pan also. I told him to look at the timing chain cover, yet the mechanic insisted it was the upper pan. $600 bucks later and the car was still pissing oil. Guess what was/is still leaking?

Research on here should show you that the side case cover is the source most of the time.

 

thats exactly what happend to me on a 97 Audi A4, i redid the pan 3 times before figuring out that i had moved the timing chain gasket out of place while doing the valve cover gasket right before removing the oil pan( i removed the 2 bolts holding it thinking they were holding the valve cover). It dripped down through an opening near the FW and I could swear it was coming from the pan. It was a PITA cause every time i had to drop the subframe again. Make sure you know where it's leaking from!

 

This also happened on a friends 5th gen when we were re-assembling it. It his case it was the o-rings behind the timing case.