Do I have an RMS leak? - pics attached
 

So when I had my 01 2.7L on the hoist for a brake job and oil change recently, the mechanic mentioned that I had an oil leak. Thinking it might be the dreaded RMS leak, I took a couple of pics so that I could ask the opinion of others here.

The interesting thing is that I had not noticed any leaks on the garage floor last year and when I stored it in a shed for 3 months for the winter and pulled it out, there were no oil spots on the floor in the shed. So any leak would have developed this month. I see a few spots of oil now on the garage floor.

Anyhow, here are the pics. There are 2 pics, one is a rather clean spot near the oil filter. It's clean now because the mechanic wiped it before I took the picture. Before he cleaned it, it was wet with oil.

The other pic is to the right of the 1st spot a bit and has not been cleaned and you can see a darker spot where there is a drip of oil about to drop.

Let me know what you think.

Editted to say: the pics are from the bottom of the car; the bottom of the pic is toward the front of the car (that is, I was facing the front of the car when I took the pictures). The pic entitled "Other-Place" is a bit to the right of the oil pan. Sorry I should have taken a farther wider angle to give you guys perspective.

Also how do you post pictures in-line with the post rather than as attachments. Does this require having an account somewhere that hosts the pictures?

Yes, you need a hosting account (or a site that hosts pictures http://www.putfile.com/ ) to have your pictures display not as attachments (unless the pictures are small, then they'll show up even as attachments).

As for your pictures, that is an RMS failure without a doubt.











































































April Fools

very funny...

Hi,

Nope...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Hahah Jeph, nice. I know thats not RMS failure but you had me for a second when I looked at the pics and saw your post hahahah. Nice.

Socratic,
I had an RMS failure, and I'll try to attach a pic of the underside of my car when it was drippin' for comparison. Basically, in your first pic "near the oil filter" on the silver part in the middle between the strands of wire (sorry, I don't know the part names) is where my car was leaking onto the floor from. It was confirmed as an RMS leak and repaired under warranty by the dealer. That was almost a year ago, and thankfully I'm still leak free.

Holy schneikes-sorry about the size of that pic, guys!

Big Pic...Big Leak!! Hope all is well now!!

For your question about posting pics inline, from my experience if you post one pic it will be inline but more than one and they list as attachments unless you host them elswhere and reference them.

Thanks Phil. I was afraid of that. My leak is very slow I think. Not like yours where the whole area got wet with oil.

Did the leak evolve slowly? Or did it one day suddenly start leakinga lot?

How much does an RMS fix cost anyways?

What is the ramification of leaving it very slowly leaking like this in a 01 2.7?

If you do get your RMS replaced, have the mechanic check out your clutch too. That would be the time if clutch pad needs replaced.

Socratic,
I just noticed a couple of drops on the garage floor one day. It would drip worse after being driven, generally a few drops after each drive. I used to own an MG, which leaked alot, from just about everywhere, so by comparison the leak from the Box didn't actually seem that bad! I don't know what the fix costs out of pocket, as I was still under warranty. I'm also not sure about letting it go, but I think it's been addressed here before, so you might find that info with a search. Good luck with it, I know it sucks! My Boxster is also an 01 2.7L, but I don't think there has been any real correlation with model year.
Phil