Help - Oil leak
 

I noticed tonight that my 2001 Boxster S is leaking a small amount of oil. I lifted it up and I think I found the source of the leak. It's on the drives side of the engine bay. See the red circle area. The oil is dripping on the O2 sensor line. It could be coming from the oil air separator tub that is above it. The tube looked wet (I'll open the engine bay later this week)

How do I know if this is the RMS or something else?

I put some papers under the car to make sure it's not also the oil drain crush ring. I noticed a small amount of oil around the crush ring (yes I reused the crush ring when I changed the oil last time and won't do that again).

Any help is appreciated!

-Steve

A leaky RMS would be dripping right down the centerline of the engine where it mates with the tranny.

From your pics it looks like you're safe !! :dance:

It could well be oil migrating from the drain plug (btw - you can reuse a crush washer once w/ a 90% chance it won't leak - if you invert it, but it's best to replace it being as cheap as they are).

But it could also be oil leaking from the filter cannister (did you replace the 'O' ring?).

Or worst case, a leaky cam cover - involved, but not expensive.

Thanks. I did manage to flip the crush ring when I changed the oil.

I checked this morning and there wasn't any new oil under the car so it's a slow leak. I'll take a closer look this weekend.

Thanks,
-Steve

Chitowndad,

That's a pretty high resolution picture you got there, I think could see a microbe crawling on your O2 sensor :D .

Lil Bastard made a good point, check to see if the oil is migrating from somewhere like the oil filter housing. The air is so turbulent when driving it could come from anywhere. If it's not running down the side of the block you should be in good shape, just use some carburetor cleaner and clean the bottom of the engine and see what happens. I see you have CPC all over the place so it will be hard to disseminate between CPC and oil. I'm sure people leave the CPC on for certain areas of the country for corrosion protection but here in OK we don't have salt problems. The OEM obviously only sprayed in on to make the trip across the pond from the fatherland.

LOL :o) Thanks for the tips on the resolution and the carb cleaner. I did check the oil filter last night and it looks good.

My problem and I'm embarrassed to say this is that my car is a garage queen! She's a 2001 S with only 9,000 miles (which worries me a bit)! It pisses me off when I drive on the road and the landscape trucks drive in the left lane dumping their trimmings all over the place. The front of my daily driver (2004 Camry) has so many dings and chips its a joke but who cares it's a Camry, right! My Porsche is so beautiful I think it's art! LOL :o) I do drive it a lot on the weekends...

I'll do more engine checking this weekend.

-Steve

It's cosmoline, right? It's all over my car's engine, too, and here in AZ, I'm not worried about salt corrosion. What's the best way to clean it off? From what I could see on the web, looks like steam cleaning is a good start.

It is essentially cosmoline (a synthetic equivalent), but there's no reason to remove it, even if you don't encounter any road salt.

The alloy used in the engine will oxidize if exposed to water/air and this coating also provides some corrosion protection for the bolt heads and other ferrous parts.

Leaving it on will not effect the engine operation in the least.

Right on LB, there is no reason to remove the CPC (Corrosion Preventative Compound), I just like to keep the engine clean so I can spot any leaks when they happen. But that's me, Mr. Anal, that's what my wife calls me and I hope she means it in that context :rolleyes: .

And yes, if you feel like removing the cosmoline use a steam cleaner because it's melting point is only 115-125 degrees. It's like dried out Vaseline.