oil loss 90 200tqa

[Brett Dikeman]

At 3:54 PM -0700 4/7/02, Ron Wainwright wrote:
>   Listers,
>
>   My girlfriend told me a few days ago about hearing
>the lifters tickin
>so I took a look at the oil and found that it all most
>didn't register on the dip stick

heh, and I thought it was just my car that changed tunes when it was
a little low :-)

>so I crawled under the car to look and see if the
>filter was tight and the oil plug was tight and they
>were but there's oil all over the front underside of
>the engine near the main crank, belts, Alt,
>  seen a black/brown wire that is screwed into the
>underside of the engine near the alt what is it? allot
>of oil was near it could that leak oil?
>I can't see any other place oil might have come from.
>  I just bought the car a few months back and did the
>first oil and filter change on it about a month ago
>there usta be a Valvoline filter and probably
>Valvoilne oil as well I used a Mann filter and 15/50w
>Mobil synthetic.

Hmm, well, I'd say clean up the area as best you can, and then
reinspect frequently to see if you can catch it in the act(and see if
it's still leaking.)   The first thing that came to mind from your
description was the crank seal, which would really suck :(  Mine is
starting to leak a little there too, but it's due for a t-belt change
very shortly, thank god.

Oh..actually, one thing, BTDT myself on this...check both connections
for the oil cooler at the engine block.  One of the fittings had
worked itself almost completely loose.  I tightened it as best I
could by hand, and the leak stopped; still haven't figured out how to
get in there to tighten it up properly.  Only reason I noticed it was
because I went to hang a shop light on one of the cooler lines and it
moved(!)

BTW, after you get the leak straightened out and get to the next oil
change, I'd suggest running 10w30.  You'll see a slight increase in
mileage etc...and the lighter weight will be better for you out there
in the western end of the state, to boot.  I run 10w30 pretty much
all the time now...it's plenty, given our water cooled turbos and the
synthetic oil.

HTH!

Brett
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