Crying Engine

[Steve Tinker]

In thread #6, the OP says his car has done 160,000km (100,000 miles) which is hardly "close to the end of its expected life" especially if it has been well maintained.
There are many people on this forum that has more than 100k on their cars.

[kk2002s]

I suspect that if you are taking your car in to have a mechanic re secure some floppy under panels, then you are not comfortable doing the engine repairs.
If this is the first time you have noticed oil leakage, haven't noticed drips where you park, then you must not be leaking much.

Are you checking dip stick level regularly?

If the car is not losing a lot then cleaning it up and monitoring could save you thousands

Correct - spending $3k to save $15k is probably worth it
BUT spending $3k to fix a $100-$500 DIY job is _ _ _ _ ? fill in your own words