Leaking Oil. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

[doyouquaxu]

3.0, 80k miles. motorcraft filter and 5-20 synthetic, or other types of synthetic since i bought it at 36k miles.
automatic (5r55e if it matters)
daily driven 60 miles on the freeway.

the issue: it's leaking oil. crawled under the truck, and the oil seems to be coming from where the engine and trans are bolted together. my trans was worked on around 30k miles ago to replace my rear main seal at the dealership, otherwise there's never been any motor or trans work done besides regular maintenance. dipstick for the trans and engine both read full, so i don't know what it can be. oil filter was a tad bit loose, so i tightened that and cleaned up the oil i could reach.

Pics:

laying under the driver's door, that's all oil on the cat

driver's side of the trans. engine is at the top of the picture. you can see to the left of the drain pan plug there is a hole in the plate with no bolt in it. is that supposed to have something in it?

center

passenger side

passenger side edge of the trans pan

trans cross member covered in oil

 

[Big Jim M]

First place

The first thing to do is to look higher up on the engine. A leak anywhere will end up on the bottom of the engine.
Valve covers are the main place where leaks occur. So we rub our hands all the way around the valve covers to see if they get a little wet! If they do then we know the leak is up there.

The pcv will cause engine pressure to build up and push oil out the rear main seal. So we always install a new pcv to see if that is why the rear main is leaking.

Dealers have installed many rear main seals when all that was needed was a new pcv.
Big JIm

 

[doyouquaxu]

thanks for the tips Big Jim, I'll do that tomorrow when the sun comes back up.

 

[doyouquaxu]

i went out to my truck to get something else and checked for leaks higher up. there looks to be old oil on the top of the valve covers that has been covered with dirt from age, otherwise there were no other leaks i could find. if the leak continues i'll try changing the pcv valve, but i don't wanna throw parts at the truck.

 

[Earl43P]

PCV valves are dirt cheap.

I wouldn't call that "throwing parts at it".
It's the first logical step troubleshooting this leak, as you were advised^^.

 

[doyouquaxu]

PCV valves are dirt cheap.

I wouldn't call that "throwing parts at it".
It's the first logical step troubleshooting this leak, as you were advised^^.

yeah, but right now I don't have a job and commute 60 miles a day 4 days a week to school. I'd rather try and find out it's something that is loose or similar to that. If it comes down to it, I will replace the valve but would like to exhaust all the free options at first.

a member on another forum suggested it could be the oil pressure gauge on the back passenger side of the block, he had similar leaking like i did, so i'm going to check it when my engine cools off.

 

[doyouquaxu]

the oil pressure gauge had no evidence of a leak around it. however looking around the oil filter area more, there is visible oil both on the block, and on the frame and upper control arm mounts on the driver side. i cleaned all the oil i could with a rag, i don't have any type of degreaser at my parent's house to spray things down with. hopefully it was just my filter being loose. if not, time to get the PCV valve.

 

[doyouquaxu]

well, after tightening up the lose oil filter, and cleaning up the oil with a rag 2 days ago, there are no new drips or oil being where it shouldn't. good thing it was such an easy problem to solve