engine oil leak passenger side

joshp · 08-08-2004, 04:44 PM

I have an engine oil leak on the passenger side by the crank and there is oil covered with dirt sitting all over the frame on that side. The oil is even on the alternator. Are there any other gaskets besides the oil pan and the camshaft cover? Also are the gaskets on saturns made out of rtv liquid gasket stuff? My manual seems to be making the claim they are. It's a 97 saturn sl2. Anyone pulled the oil pan before? If so how was it? THe books saying I have to disconnect the exhaust. I want to solve this oil leak, because it's putting oil around the pulleys, the belt and even the rubber boot for the cv shaft or whatever that driveshaft is called. Also am I posting this in the correct area? Thanks.

jarvy · 08-08-2004, 07:46 PM

i haev that exact same problem. i hate it because theres always oil on the inside of my hood cause the pulleys get coated and sling it everywhere. also my beat squeels when i first start my car cause its slipping due to the oil.

joshp · 08-08-2004, 10:57 PM

I decided to just tighten the pan a little bit. If this doesn't work I'll have to pull it and then I'll use the liquid gasket stuff. It suck because you have to remove the engine mount on the bottom of the engine, disconnect the exhaust and it appears I have to remove part of the mounting stuff for the manual transmission (the mount) so I'll have to jack up the transmission. All this to do an oil pan. Not the best thought out design.

**Ssicarman** · 08-09-2004, 02:40 AM

It may be the oil pan gasket, which is RTV and won't seal any better if you try to tighten the bolts. A lot of the oil may be coming from oil changes, the oil filter if not removed carefully and the oil wiped off can migrate around the oil pan.
Now if the oil is up by the alternator it is not coming fromn the oil pan. Could be slung up by the crank pulley if the front crank seal has popped out. More likely it is from a PS pump shaft seal leak. Other possible is the head gasket just behind the PS pump. But if it is all over the alt then the PS pump shaft seal is very good choice. Could also be a leaking valve cover gasket.
To remove the oil pan you don't need to jack up the trans.

joshp · 08-09-2004, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ssicarman

It may be the oil pan gasket, which is RTV and won't seal any better if you try to tighten the bolts. A lot of the oil may be coming from oil changes, the oil filter if not removed carefully and the oil wiped off can migrate around the oil pan.
Now if the oil is up by the alternator it is not coming fromn the oil pan. Could be slung up by the crank pulley if the front crank seal has popped out. More likely it is from a PS pump shaft seal leak. Other possible is the head gasket just behind the PS pump. But if it is all over the alt then the PS pump shaft seal is very good choice. Could also be a leaking valve cover gasket.
To remove the oil pan you don't need to jack up the trans.

This may be a stupid question but if it is the power steering wouldn't I be running out of powersteering fluid? My car hasn't really needed power steering fluid added. I figured it was the oil pan because around the gasket if you split the car in half down the middle (passenger and driver side) The drivers side has no seepage while at the center (between driver and passenger side seepage starts and gets worse as you head further towards the passenger side. What's involved in doing a crankcase seal on a saturn? What has to be pulled to achieve this? I used to have a suped up vw old bug and we had this problem with one of the engines prior to pulling it out for a modified motor. THe crank seal was bad and this caused oil to go everywhere in the engine compartment. Didn't even use much oil, just put a nice thin layer of oil and dirt on everything.

**Ssicarman** · 08-10-2004, 01:31 AM

To repalce the front crank seal you need to remove the crank pulley from the front of the engine.
Perhaps at this time it might be a good idea to give the engine a real good shampoo, top and bottom to get all of the oil and oily dirt off of it and then keep an eye on it to see where the oil is actually coming from.