Oil leak

[denk04]

Keith, thanks for the advice. I think I'll do the same.

[Duke583]

Thanks, guys. Bird goes in on Monday.to my mechanic I have picked up a Motorcraft oil filter to be used on the oil change. I will let you know if and where he finds the leak.

[miketx]

Two most likely culprits are the oil pan gasket and the gasket between the block and the oil filter neck. My recently fixed leak was the latter. It may only have 51K, but it also has 15 years.

Hey Paul....what did your leak look like? Our 04 has sprung an oil leak......found some drops on the garage floor today. At first I thought maybe it was the valve cover gasket, since I recently did the coils/plugs, but now I'm not sure. The whole oil pan has a coating of oil, and a few drops hanging from the oil filter housing. It could be coming from above, or the filter housing, or pan. Or worsecase the timing cover. Not sure. I'm going to give the filter (Motorcraft) an extra twist, but I always use a wrench on it anyways, so I'm pretty sure the filter is not the problem.

[2K2BIRD]

I never really got down and looked at it. It was dripping at ths front part of the engine. The drip was worse over time, but when they were chasing it down they said the oil filter was not completely tightened up, so that is probably why it appeared worse. I only use Motorcraft filters, so evidently any of them can loosen up a little over time. The change was done by a guy that had done it multiple times over the years without a problem.

[EllisonCal]

My 2005 had a small leak from the aforementioned timing chain cover. It left a spot about the size of a quarter overnight if I drove the car and parked it in the garage. Couldn't tell where it was coming from as it was so little leaking without the Dye test. It was around $150-$200 and it cost me a sale because the potential buyer was afraid to buy after the leak was diagnosed. Ford service advisers told me that the cost of labor would be so high for such a small problem they wouldn't even do it on their own car. That is what I told the person who bought the car for $12,500 last year. My car had 104,000 miles on it, but it ran great and looked great.

[428PI]

EllisonCal, I haven't done many front timing cover reseals for customers because of the cost for higher mileage vehicles. I work at a shop now that if a drip is formed we repair it in their used car dept. We reseal many timing covers for later model cars. Most of these are sealed with silicone. On my tbird it had to run around 3-500 miles before it would collect enough to drip. All's good now that I've replaced the gasket.

[StevenM]

Humm, it’s an 03, that’s about 15 years old. In human years that would be about 70. Mine leaves a few drops on the floor too. And at almost 70, I leak too! Just wipe it up and move on. Be concerned if the leaking gets real bad and either see a mechanic or a doctor!

[Sierra977]

As mentioned more than once in this tread, first thing to check when chasing an oil leak (especially from the front of the engine) is the oil filter. Mine has loosened and dripped on two occasions. A simple, firm twist both times stopped seepage past the oil filter gasket.