oil leak, easy fix?

I just noticed a sizable puddle of oil on the driveway… After investigating, I found the ‘wettest’ part (pics below). The metal line pictured looks like just a loop. Is there a gasket connecting these together? Could this line be a the cause of the problem? I need to get an oil change anyways… so I need to get to the root of the problem beforehand.

http://extreme.nas.net/IMG_0082b.jpg
http://extreme.nas.net/IMG_0085b.jpg

Any ideas?

Thanks.

95 240sx

Jason

The silver line your red arrow is pointing to looks like a coolant return line.

Look above it. You might have oil dripping down from in/around the oil filter.

I didn’t think that was an oil line… I just checked around the oil filter and there was no oil on it. There’s quite a bit of oil in the lower front around to the lower passenger side of the engine area. How could the leaking oil get from the below the engine up the coolant return line? An oil spray? Is there a gasket in that area? Its a mess.

Hopefully its not something big!

Jason

well it’s not an oil or coolant line lol that’s a power steering line… the loop is because that’s our lame ass excuse for a power steerign cooler, the spot u point to is not a gasket, it’s simply a busing to keep the liens in place… and the oil is definately not commign from there… it comming probobly from somewhere above, mine is super oily and it’s cause i have a leaky seal on the front of the motor but i just let it drip lol that ka i s gone soon enough anywyas…

I never noticed the leak before seeing the puddle in the driveway today… there appears to be quite a bit of oil around the engine area - most likely stuck to dirt.

Is this something I should worry about?

Thanks.

Jason

hmm if you’ve all of a sudden got a puddle then yes you proboly shoudl worry, if it had slowly built up then it’s not a serious worry, you also e surpised where oil can get when it’s gettign clown arounf by wind while drivign

The car will be sitting in the driveway all tomorrow so I’ll check if there are any drips on the driveway and where. Where are some places that I should I be checking for leaks?

Jason

maybe leaking out of the top of the oil pan

crankcase seal at the front crank pully, you didn’t mention KM but these tend to fail on ka’s, mine around 250k-300k

meh dont worry about it, mines pissing out of everypossible seal like a fountain…just helps you to save up for a new engine that much better

It just rolled passed 180K. I think I’m going to have to try cleaning off the oil around the area in order to figure out where the leak is.

I checked this morning and it looked like the oil was mostly around the front/bottom passenger side of the engine. From what I could tell with the flashlight, there is a small belt/pully just above it the wettest area.

Jason

Just an update:

Put the car up on the hoist at the mechanic’s down the street. There’s quite a bit of oil all over the place but concentrated mostly under the crankshaft gasket. But since there was oil stuck everywhere around it, it was hard to tell if it was that or the oil pan gasket. So now I have to go back again to have it cleaned off to see exactly where its coming from.

Just out of curiosity, any ideas how much replacing a crankshaft gasket would cost? Unfortunately I don’t have the tools/ability to do it myself or I would. I don’t have a regular mechanic so that’s another issue altogether.

Thanks.

Jason

Here’s an updated photo after cleaning the oil off and driving for a day. Dead oilpan gasket?

http://extreme.nas.net/pics-008c.jpg

Jason

oilpans on these nissans use “make a gasket”

gasket in a tube…

just pull off clean, apply gasket and replace