GT Wagon
04-02-2012, 08:03 AM
Pics coming soon. My wife was leaving the house this weekend and as she pulls out I see a huge pool of dirty black oil on our new garage floor (ugh). Got her to pull over and take my Forester. Get underneath and at least it wasn't a cracked block. Turns out the oil pan is rusting out at the front and has started to seep oil from about the middle of the pan. Its kinda like a scab that's picked before it heals (gross but valid comparison). Clean it with a rag and the oil just barely seeps through in about 30 seconds and slowly drips down the front. Must have just started when she pulled in because there was no oil blown backwards down the underbody. I checked the oil and was only down 1/4 a most. Filled it up and went to pick up kitty litter asap to clean up the oil. Came back and its nearly full & there's oil blown down the body.
Anyway the proper fix is to replace the oil pan which appears to be more involved than just RE and RE. Looks like the engine mounts are in the way of some bolts and have to be pulled. Her car is nicely rusted so bolts may snap.... potential for higher labour costs. I'm attempting to fix the problem with POR15. Got it for rolling my Forester fenders, the stuff is supposed to make a solid barrier to rust. It just paints on and let it dry, right on top of rust so super easy and worth a shot.
What I did is put the car up on the ramps so the seep area is the high spot. I drained all the oil out so it shouldn't seep anymore, degreased the area , pat dry and let air dry overnight. I've done two coats yesterday and let them dry fully (5hrs), will apply another coat today. Then I'm going to fill it back up with oil again and how well it worked. In theory it should create a new surface and contain the oil. People use this stuff on race cars, rusty project cars etc so I'm not using it for anythign it wasn't intended. While there's technically a leak there's no hole per say, just a huge fist size rust mark and it seeps from a pin prick sized spot.
Wish me (her) luck !
Anyway the proper fix is to replace the oil pan which appears to be more involved than just RE and RE. Looks like the engine mounts are in the way of some bolts and have to be pulled. Her car is nicely rusted so bolts may snap.... potential for higher labour costs. I'm attempting to fix the problem with POR15. Got it for rolling my Forester fenders, the stuff is supposed to make a solid barrier to rust. It just paints on and let it dry, right on top of rust so super easy and worth a shot.
What I did is put the car up on the ramps so the seep area is the high spot. I drained all the oil out so it shouldn't seep anymore, degreased the area , pat dry and let air dry overnight. I've done two coats yesterday and let them dry fully (5hrs), will apply another coat today. Then I'm going to fill it back up with oil again and how well it worked. In theory it should create a new surface and contain the oil. People use this stuff on race cars, rusty project cars etc so I'm not using it for anythign it wasn't intended. While there's technically a leak there's no hole per say, just a huge fist size rust mark and it seeps from a pin prick sized spot.
Wish me (her) luck !