Oil dripping from pan?

[peytonracer4]

When I come out to my car I'll see a couple of drops on the ground and I can see where it's dripping from the lower pan on the passengers side.
I've reseated the vcg twice and this time I was really anal about getting all mounting surfaces clean. I replaced the pan gasket.
Over a period of a couple weeks there's always fresh drips but I never notice a loss in the oil level.

Before I got the car I believe someone ran the engine without the filter housing cap on or something because there was oil everywhere!
Could this be left over oil just settling down? Somehow I doubt it because I cleaned it fairly well and it looks fresh. It's just the fact that there's no change in the oil lever that throws me

[Balleristic31]

Check the upper pan gasket.

[Ryann]

Your upper and/or lower pans may have hairline cracks in them from scraping or striking something.

[loonibab325i]

Looks like YOU HAVE A LEAK! :O

[loonibab325i]

on a serious note it could be hairline cracks on the pan.. i had that problem with my first e30.. it took me forever to diagnose the problem because it seemed like it was leaking out of no where. check for small barley visible spider webbing on the pan, that could be your culprit

[Brilliantrot 318is]

crank shaft seals can go bad just because, I replaced my @ 151k and it was leaking bad, I'd inspect the oil pan for cracks first, just considering how low they sit on our cars..

best of luck :)

[Dj Buttchug]

fuck everyone in this thread. Its leaking from the timing case. specifically here.


Just kidding. but on the real. Its likely this area more than anything else.

check it out op.

[peytonracer4]

Dj you might be right. Fawk.
No way to solve this short of taking off the timing case?

[Dj Buttchug]

There are two ways. 1 suck it up and pull the head to replace number 10. ( which is a total bitch) btw.

or 2. Go to a auto parts store and buy the best oil stop leak additive you can find. dump it into a fresh oil change and drive the car for 1k miles.

I did this and it stopped the leak on my daily car. I cant say how long it will last but it saved me from having to do a full head gasket, for now. Im expecting to have to do one just to fix this gasket properly in the near future.