Thread: Common oil leaks and fixes?

Well since I bought my 98 GTP, I have noticed a few drops of oil when I park it. Nothing major, but an oil leak none the less.

This is the first car I have owned in a decade that had ever leaked fluid of any kind.

I believe it to be the oil pan gasket that is leaking. Is this a common problem?

What other areas are common for oil leaks/fluid leaks?

I would like to change all the easy gaskets that are leaking next time I change the oil.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Craig

LIM gaskets are usually the culprit for the 3800's external oil leaks.

True... forgot this was the supercharged section.

My engine was leaking from the oil pan, valve covers, and LIM gasket. Fixed them and it dried everything up nice.

LIM?

What is that?

Originally Posted by hunter_alexander

LIM?

What is that?

Lower Intake Manifold.

The gaskets between the LIM and the heads will start going bad and either letting oil and coolant out of the engine (desirable, if at all possible), or letting the coolant in to the oil, and oil into the coolant (Not good).

ok. I havent had that problem yet. At least that I know of. I check my oil regularly and no coolant in it or oil in the coolant.

I have to change the fluid and filter on the tranny, so while I am under there, I will change the oil pan gasket (hoping that it is that easy) and do a little clean up.

Does the LIM fail due to overheating, running your car hard or just happens after time?

Engine oil pan gasket is not a fun DIY project. You have to support the motor and transmission while dropping out the whole sub-frame/engine cradle.

The LIM gaskets go bad because they are made of pretty cheap plastic. GM knows of this problem with them cracked around the coolant channels, and they have since revised the design of them. The new replacements I would recommend getting would be new aluminum ones from GM as seen here:


They are even reusable about 2-3 times as well if you do it right each installment.

They don't really cause an oil leak, just a coolant leak. You know they are bad when you see coolant puddling around the base of your fuel injectors.

~F~

Originally Posted by hunter_alexander

ok. I havent had that problem yet. At least that I know of. I check my oil regularly and no coolant in it or oil in the coolant.

I have to change the fluid and filter on the tranny, so while I am under there, I will change the oil pan gasket (hoping that it is that easy) and do a little clean up.

Does the LIM fail due to overheating, running your car hard or just happens after time?

I didn't have any signs that my LIM gaskets were bad either. I just knew the problems that others had with them. So when I was changing all the other gaskets, I did these as well. Ended up they were bad. The plastic had broken down, and if they weren't letting coolant into the passages, it would have soon. So it was a good thing I was proactive and changed them before I saw any signs. Getting coolant in your oil is not something you want to mess with. Even just a little bit of water in your oil can spin your bearings and require you to replace the entire engine.

As farnsworth said, the oil pan is not an easy DIY job. I had more trouble with that and the lower mount than with the LIM job. It is doable, but not an easy job.

hmm, well that sucks about the engine oil pan not being easy. Havent crawled under to take a good look at it to see yet, but I will take your word for it.

I just talked with the original owner of my car, and he said that he already did the LIM gasket at 90k. So I am good there. Its good to know the previous original owner. Any time I have a question on the car, I can ask him.

Originally Posted by GR8racingfool

They are even reusable about 2-3 times as well if you do it right each installment.

Define "do it right" since I already used those and might be cracking it open again.

Originally Posted by hunter_alexander

I just talked with the original owner of my car, and he said that he already did the LIM gasket at 90k. So I am good there.

But does he know if the newer aluminum gasket design was used? A lot of people have had the service done and just gotten the same type of gasket which will fail again eventually.