New oil leak, thoughts on location and cause?
 

Drove the 928S to work today, no problems but when I went to go home after it was sitting for an hour I noticed a little puddle under it. Checked with the finger, it's oil, looks like center of engine, rear in line with the starter. Was dripping a drop every other minute even after the car had been sitting.

Drove home, saw no oil on the driveway, so this is very new. Any thoughts on the source?

1. Could be rear main seal.

2. Could also be oil pan gasket.

Can also be the back of a cam cover running down as well.

Get under and peek-a-boo at it.

If was an 82 or earlier, could also be #7, here:
http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=103-05

Yep, I'll have to run it up on the ramps tomorrow, this evening I had to wash the cars so I can sell one of them. Possible it's the seal, in which case it happened pretty suddenly. And I'm guessing that will be a trip to Porsche to fix, any guestimates on cost for an automatic?

It's also possible the car was just very happy to see me this afternoon.

C

The usual suspects would be cam covers and pan gasket. Unless you get very lucky nobody at the dealer will have a single clue what to do about your car. But they know how to charge you.

Possible it's a leaking galley plug (those are hell on wheels) or the oil pan gasket, the latter could explain why I didn't see it on my driveway (downhill slope, car is head down). I'll see in the morning, is it a pain to swap out the oil pan?

When I got mine a few months ago and started working on it, the bottom of the engine and nearby accessories were soaked in oil & grime. Turns out every bolt holding on the oil pan was loose, some not even finger tight. I cleaned everything up and tightened every bolt I could access - haven't seen any evidence of leaking since.

Hm. No oil on the driveway this morning, no oil on the ground under the car at work parked head slightly down.

Probably a leak from the rear oil pan, will check the oil level at the next fueling. Last time it was halfway between the fill and full lines so I have a baseline.

Interesting.

Oil pan is fairly involved.

Presuming you don't want to pull the motor, you have to take off the crossmember.
Some folks (MrMerlin among them) have a technique that sneaks the new gasket around the pan without dropping the crossmember, but having had the pan off twice (long story), I think that is something you need a fair amount of experience with the 928 to pull off.

If you look up Dwayne's write up on the motor mounts, it shows how to get the crossmember off. Since you are going in, motor mounts are an easy "WYAIT".

Fun. Hm, could be a problem as I don't have an engine hoist, would be doing this in the driveway in November, and to be honest I don't want an engine to fall on me. Make big splat noise.

Is there a reasonable mechanic in the MD/DC/VA area that could do this, the mounts and (why not) the timing belts? There are things I look at and go nope, pulling engines is one of them at this time.

Course it could just be a loose oil pan bolt....

climb under with a light and look for the highest point on the block that is dry. leak is just below that. if its a 16V it could be the cam caps on the back of the heads. common leak point.

Almost any leak into the valley will eventually drain to the ground where you describe. Flashlight and some hard looking under the intake front and rear, looking for oil from the filler neck, oil and vent hoses under the intake, or the tops of the cam covers from where oil runs under the intake. It drains out the rear towards the bellhousing and the inspection hole/plug, leaks down to exit in the middle where you describe.

I'm a little tiny bit OCD about leaks and fluids, to the point where I work pretty hard to keep the mechanical bits clean enough to set your sandwich down in. Fringe benefit is that you can easily find the sources of oil dribbles. Oil flows down and to the rear for the most part.

Gunk Foamy Engine Brite, Simple Green, ZEP Orange degreaser concentrate are all my close friends. Plus P21S body scrub as a last touch.

You don't need an engine hoist to support the engine when the crossmember is removed (you DO need to support the engine).

Dwayne's writeup shows a simple, cheap and effective way to make a support with lumber. I used that to hold mine (and it held it for a month or so).

Stan (MrMerlin) is in Philly. Not quite local, but well worth the trip.

So in the past month and a bit it's either been raining, snowing, or other issues keeping me from getting under the car. I have been watching it: No further drips or puddles and the oil level is rock solid when I check it at refuelings.

The one odd thing is I had a low coolant alert when I was backing the car up the driveway (about a 40 degree hill), sure enough it needed a bit of antifreeze (could see it in the expansion tank, just a bit low) so I filled it up to the full line. Maybe the leak was antifreeze and not oil; I'll make sure to taste it next time.

Meantime car continues to run fine, nothing else unusual.