Oil leaks

[DShen]

Originally Posted by 78F350

That oil at the rear of the engine could be from the rear main seal, the IMS bearing seal, or just residual oil from the spark plug tubes..

If you are planning to work on it yourself, do the spark plugs/tubes and clean the areas where there's oil. Drive it after it has been cleaned and see how it looks. If it is still leaking somewhere it will be easier to identify.

If you take it to a shop and say, "Fix the oil leak." expect them to say that it needs a new RMS (and IMS while they are in there). ...Clutch, flywheel, mounts coolant tank and AOS. A dealership or respectable Porsche shop could give you a bill of $8,000 to $10,000 once they get finished.
Does it need all that done? Probably not, but it's all maintenance that can easily be added on to an old 986 once you get deep into it.

Again, I'd recommend doing the spark plugs and tubes yourself and the driving it for a while to see if it's acceptable.

Those are some scary repair numbers! Yup, I am planning on doing some cleaning and then changing out the tubes. Then drive around and see if there are more leaks. Exactly as you said.

The previous owner did get the ims, rms, clutch all done together 40K miles/9 years ago. Clutch is fine, but time to refresh the two seals?

[Gilles]

78F350 provided very sound advise indeed..

What I would do in this case, is to buy two cans of (heavy duty) engine degreaser, apply it all over the engine and then "gently rinse" with "Very Low Pressure water" and thereafter use Simply green to remove the oily residue left by the engine degreaser, then again rinse with Low Pressure water..

Sorry to repeat but the Low Pressure water is the key to rinse your engine without getting water into any of the electric connectors, I have don this procedure for many years on all my cars and never had an issue..

After you drive the car it will be very obvious where the oil leaks come from, good luck!
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[DShen]

Okay so I started the car for about 2 mins to warm up the oil. Got under and saw the leak in the photo attached. I then changed the spark plug tubes (they were definitely also leaking) and plugs, and did an oil change. Very very tiny bits of metal on the magnetic drain plug. I checked the oil filter and it was super clean, just oil. So that rules out IMS leak?

My guess is RMS leak. As stated the last time the rms/ims/clutch was changed was 40k miles/9 years ago.

I'll inspect the engine from the top to see if there are leaks from up there. What do you guys think? RMS for sure?

[Gilles]

Dshen, unfortunately, the only way to determine your oil leak source will be after you thoroughly clean you engine (top and bottom), as many of the leaks start on the upper side of the engine..