Rexxus

Hi,

I was hoping you could let me know your thoughts as below;

1. what part is this? Oil pan? Oil cooling pan?
2. seems like a patch that’s leaking a bit. There’s a touch of moisture when I push on it
3. some oil around 1 of the bolts
4. No oil on ground, doesn’t seem to be a big leak

questions;

1. should I rip off the patch and replace? Or should I seal it with silicone or some other compound?

2. how do you seal a bolt that’s leaking? Should I unscrew, coat it with a sealer or glue or something and reinstall?

3. If I remove will there be a large oil leak or drips until I reinstall? Can I fix without removing?



You can see some oil around the bolt closest to camera


Above the green tape next to my finger there’s this black looking patch. It seems to fit over one of the ridges. What’s the pan? Oil pan? Oil cooler? When I press on the patch some oil peeks out. Doesn’t drip. Should I rip it off and put new? Seal it more?


What’s this cable under body drivers side? You can see there’s one line but place for 2. Is one missing or is this normal?

Mrmerlin

for the bolt leak,
remove the bolt,
spray brake cleaner into the hole then blow it out.
Clean the bolt,
put PTFE Loctite pipe sealant on the bolt threads, be generous.
Then put the bolt back in.


The rubber pad on the oil pan is to prevent the HOT wire from the battery touching the rib of the pan,
this will make a huge short ,
make sure the battery wires( the thick ones) are clear of this pad.
NOTE if its loose then you should remove it,
clean the surfaces and use hi heat epoxy to reinstall it.

NOTE disconnect the ground strap first before touching these wires.

That metal line is the rear brake line,
its OK that the other side of the carrier is empty,
one line feeds both rear brakes.

NOTE the fat wire running down the frame next to the brake line is the HOT wire from the battery

Petza914

From the drops and white goop, looks like someone bonded the oil pan directly to the block without an oil pan gasket. Wonder what they used that's white and how long it will last. Your leak does just look like it's the bolt though and not the pan since I don't see anything above it

Rexxus

awesome! Thank you for letting me know about the wires and what’s what. Is there a master list of torque specs for the car? Do you happen to know what I should be torquing that bolt to?

Rexxus

I bet you think you’re pretty funny? Making me get under the car to sandbag me on coming loose. I’ll reach you NUT! I tried to loosen the bolt holding the frayed wire in the pic below to the starter. The plan is to replace the wiring harness in general but for now I plan on cutting away the frayed wires, twisting the remaining wires tight and heat shrinking the housing and taping it up.

but I can’t loosen the bolt lol! There isn’t enough space or torque for a small screwdriver, I don’t have a wrench smaller than 8, and there isn’t enough space to use an adjustable wrench.

1. Does anyone sell Alan keys with a flat head tip? Is that a thing?
2. how did you loosen this nut? Smaller crescent wrench like a 7 or 6?
3. when tightening bolts on the oil pan, what torque setting is used?

*battery is completed disconnected, 89 S4 row. By the way, do you need to disconnect positive and negative on battery or just negative?

THANK YOU and take care!!

Landseer

Can you repost the picture of whatever you are struggling with please.

StratfordShark

Are you trying to remove one of the starter motor bolts? I remember when I did pan gasket one is ‘blocked’ by motor body, and solution was to insert Allen key into bolt head (is it 6mm?) and use a small wrench on the hex shaft.

The pan torque is very low - around 6 or 8 Nm. If you have a 1/4” torque wrench it will go down that low accurately, but it’s just a couple of fingers pulling on a small wrench. You don’t want to over-compress pan gasket and squeeze it out.

Rexxus

You can see the thinner black wire under the fat black one. The thin wire is frayed so I want to disconnect that nut, put a heat shrink around and re attach

Mrmerlin

you need a 7 mm and 8 mm and 13mm wrench to remove those two bolts if they are the stock parts.

you could drop the sway bar down then you will have an easier time of things,
4 bolts hold it to the frame loosen the lower link bolts a few turns as well

Rexxus

dear diary,

today was pretty good. Pad Thai for dinner, some good convo with my wife and some baby snuggles with the kiddo. Working on the car was pretty fun to apart from the gas dome I created. Pad Thai farts in an enclosed space really changed the mood.

my projects for today were to disconnect the starter wire, repair with heat shrink and tape and to remove the leaky bolt and seal. I allotted 1.5 hours.

side note, the hardware store has an awesome deal for a socket and wrench set. 2 sets of wrenches, 8 each set, and a 148 piece socket set with 2 ratchets for $69! Talk about hardware heaven!

managed to disconnect the starter wire with the correct crescent wrench. Big win, husband 1, wife 0. Cut away loose wires, and tried to pull the heat shrink overtop the connector. 1/4 inch doesn’t fit. Tried to use forceps, no dice. Wife 1. Electrical taped it and will buy larger heat shrink to put over electrical tape. As I write this I realized I left the screw to the starter on the ground under the car. It’s causing me anxiety already momma!

go to loosen bolt and eyeballed the correct size wrench. HUGE win. 3:1 easily. Couldn’t loosen the bolt with the wrench. 3:2. Went to open my new socket set and couldn’t open the case! Hercules his flipping self couldn’t. Used godlike strength to open it and watched as my 148 piece set exploded all over the garage. 3:1000. Spent 40 mins putting the set back together. Finished the night with a taped wire. Not bad for a noob

questions

- can I use a ratchet and 13mm socket to loosen the oil pan nut? Anything I should be concerned about? Just hand tighten? I’m very strong. or put a crescent wrench on the bolt and tap with a hammer?

Mrmerlin

are you talking about removing the drain plug?
if so thats a 15MM socket,
use a six point so you dont round it off.

The oil pan bolts that hold it to the block are 10 MM turn to snug then 1/3 of a turn use blue loctite

Rexxus

starter wire disconnected, taped, heat shrunk and reinstalled. BOOM.

I removed one of the leaky bolts from the pic. It was weird. Someone above commented on the white goop around the oil pan asked what it might be? When I touch the stuff around the pan it’s hard but a little malleable almost like a rubber or like caulking maybe. When I took out the bolt though the hole and bolt were covered in what I think it the same material, a white sticky substance that almost smelled like paint?!? The weird part was it was still wet! Like it hadn’t dried like the other stuff. I’m assuming lock tight dries hard? Anywho, I cleaned it all off, used lock tight and re installed. I did it on 2 bolts. I’ll leave the car on the ramp while it cures which should be tomorrow end of day and fire it up. Hopefully no issues!!

any issues with the car staying on the plastic ramps for a few weeks? I’ve had it parked with the front tires up on ramps for about 2 weeks. Also, when you disconnect the battery, I’ve been disconnected the ground strap that bolts to frame and the positive terminal on the battery. I’ve seen some who disconnect the negative terminal from the battery only. Does that work or should you disconnect both? how do you know you’ve over torqued a bolt? I understand how easy it would be now that I’ve done 2.

fun story

I disconnected the starter wire with ease once I had the 7mm crescent. I had to buy larger heat shrink, 8mm I believe and I finally get the whole thing assembled back together and start to wonder was there a washer? Couldn’t find anything under the car. Do one of the bolts and see the damn washer. Decide to disconnect the starter again and go to reinstall and so begins a 45 minute wtf? I can’t screw it back in. I keep asking myself why won’t the screw catch? The washer? Wrong hole? Isn’t there only one? Wait there’s another one behind. Try there. Nope. Grab my phone and confirm the pic in this post. It was the right place. Wtf. Frustration level rising. Realize I’m turning it the wrong way!!!! It’s hard being a noob!

Petza914

Sounds like someone used thread sealant or maybe even pipe joint compound to try and quell that leak. Odd choice and maybe a precursor to other surprises you'll be finding.

Mrmerlin

Loctite, PTFE non setting pipe sealant is what you could be seeing around the pan surface,
this is what I was suggesting to use.

Disconnecting the negative terminal and isolating it from touching the chassis is all you need to do.
Make sure the battery has a proper hold down, leave the positive terminal alone.
put the red cover over the terminal so it wont touch the lid

Get a set of wrenches that fit the bolts your touching.

A crescent wrench is not a proper tool for working on the fasteners,
maybe if your 20 miles from home stuck on a bridge in the rain.

Rexxus

beauty, thanks! Turns out I do have wrench’s lol. Thought they were called crescents

hopefully no future issues with the pan. I do see a little moist oil in certain places in the area but I’ll tackle that some other time. In the meantime, thank you all for your help!!!

once I fire up the car today I’ll post a final update to let you know it hasn’t exploded