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I just thought I would pass this one along.
My festy leaks oil quite a bit, in fact the whole engine compartment is a real mess. I knew I had a leak at the valve cover and I replaced that but was having a hard time identifying where the leak on the lower end was coming from due to the oil mess and water spray from driving in the snow. I was going start by just replacing the oil pan gasket and seeing where that would lead when a friend at work told me about putting dye in the motor oil.
I stopped at NAPA on my way home to order the oil pan gasket and while I was there I asked the guy about the dye. He had it and I figured that I might as well spend another 4 dollars and try it out. I put it in at NAPA and proceeded to drive 10 miles home while stopping at the hardware store to get a black light for my shop light in the garage.
I was skeptical at first but when I lifted the front end and started the motor I was able to see with the black light just where the oil leak was (it glows green), I have a pin hole in my oil pan. The oil was leaking out at a very slow trickle from a really rusty area on the left third of the pan where it was quite rusty and running down the side pan to here the drain plug was. To make matters worse I couldn't see it without the motor turned off because the oil inside the pan ran to the lower part of the pan where it was still solid. Probably was there for quite a while.
This saved me quite a bit of time because I would have pulled the oil pan this weekend, replaced the gasket and had the same leak I started with. As it is, I ordered a new pan from autozone today for 75 bucks (I know AZ, but how bad can they mess up an oil pan?). Secondly if this had let loose while going down the road I would have trashed the motor.
I noticed lot of guys posting about oil leaks lately, and it would seem that they aren't 100% sure where the oil is coming from, try this and see if it helps in isolating the leak. As always your mileage may vary.
Jon
My festy leaks oil quite a bit, in fact the whole engine compartment is a real mess. I knew I had a leak at the valve cover and I replaced that but was having a hard time identifying where the leak on the lower end was coming from due to the oil mess and water spray from driving in the snow. I was going start by just replacing the oil pan gasket and seeing where that would lead when a friend at work told me about putting dye in the motor oil.
I stopped at NAPA on my way home to order the oil pan gasket and while I was there I asked the guy about the dye. He had it and I figured that I might as well spend another 4 dollars and try it out. I put it in at NAPA and proceeded to drive 10 miles home while stopping at the hardware store to get a black light for my shop light in the garage.
I was skeptical at first but when I lifted the front end and started the motor I was able to see with the black light just where the oil leak was (it glows green), I have a pin hole in my oil pan. The oil was leaking out at a very slow trickle from a really rusty area on the left third of the pan where it was quite rusty and running down the side pan to here the drain plug was. To make matters worse I couldn't see it without the motor turned off because the oil inside the pan ran to the lower part of the pan where it was still solid. Probably was there for quite a while.
This saved me quite a bit of time because I would have pulled the oil pan this weekend, replaced the gasket and had the same leak I started with. As it is, I ordered a new pan from autozone today for 75 bucks (I know AZ, but how bad can they mess up an oil pan?). Secondly if this had let loose while going down the road I would have trashed the motor.
I noticed lot of guys posting about oil leaks lately, and it would seem that they aren't 100% sure where the oil is coming from, try this and see if it helps in isolating the leak. As always your mileage may vary.
Jon
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