DodgeIntrepid.Net Forums banner

3.5 - Help diagnosing oil leak

3K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  chocpocket 
#1 ·
Hi All,

I'm having trouble pinpointing precisely where oil is leaking from. I cannot see any spots from above, but when I get underneath the car, I can see oil accumulating on my starter and the brake lines near the starter. I assume this oil must be burning off, but I never see any smoke under the hood or any coming out of the tailpipe, and I never see any oil on the ground. I have been monitoring this oil loss for a while and assumed the engine was burning oil, but I have changed the PCV valve and inspected the PCV hose and breather hose (they seem fine), but still losing oil. Are there any common gaskets or seals that fail on these engines that would be positioned above the starter (on the driver's side)? This is a 3.5 engine with 118k miles.
 
#2 ·
What year is your car? If it's a 2nd gen 1998-2004 it might be the cam cover seals leaking at the back of the heads. They use an o-ring that flattens and leaks with age. You can get a pack of ten new improved o-rings off ebay cheap. Chrysler changed the cam cover design and now use a gasket instead of an o-ring.
 
#4 ·
Sorry I left out that detail - it's a 2002. Are these the same o-rings that go behind this cover plate?

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

If so, I've already got a pack of those from when I replaced that o-ring a few years ago.

And thanks for the tip. It's a huge pain to take everything off to get in there. I will check that area out and update y'all
If they're size 136, then yes. The rear cam seal o-rings are the same size as the ones for the MTV - I assume it's the same as for the cover used in absence of MTV.
 
#6 ·
What about the valve cover gaskets? Does the leak appear to be mainly at the back of the engine? Or is more forward along the sides?
 
#7 ·
Had something similar, oil seems to be leaking from the top of the valve cover on the left side ( drivers side). Was on my way to disasemble the engine starting at the top. Showed up to be the oil filter, the 4 tabs holding the rubber o-ring, to seal against the engine block, had sprung a very tiny hole, and due to the oil pressure pushed oil upwards against the valve cover, where it ran down. The oil filter installed was not an OEM ( Mopar) one, replaced the oil and a Mopar filter. Lesson learned.
 
#8 ·
Hey guys,

Thanks for the insights. Had not been able to dig into my car lately so I apologize for the delayed reply - having to take care of GF's car.

Anyway, I looked under the hood and noticed that there is in fact oil leaking near the back of the engine - probably where the cam seal is. It looks like it was coming up onto the valve cover near the back (under the intake plenum), but I haven't dissembled the windshield cowl to really get a good look in there.

Side question - do we have a recommended replacement interval for the valve cover gasket? I may go ahead and replace it while I'm digging around in there.
 
#9 ·
No replacement interval on valve cover gaskets - but I generally replace mine whenever valve covers are removed (unless recently done) - cheap insurance. Otherwise, no reason to replace unless actually leaking.

On the rear cam covers - one of the bolt holes in the head on the driver's side is a thru hole, so you should but RTV on the bolt threads on the one hole so you don't get seepage. That tip courtesy of Bob Day (FireM).
 
#10 ·
Update: dug into it today and noticed both rear cam seals had been leaking. Did passenger side first and was successful, and RTV'd the threads on bottom bolt as suggested. Seems to be all good. Unfortunately... the driver's side was impossible. I could only remove one of the bolts with all the crap that was in the way. Unfortunately I'm out of time to mess with it this weekend so will have to give it another go sometime soon.

Does anybody have any tips for getting stuff out of the way next time on the driver's side? I was able to disconnect the PCV hose but the other hoses connected to the PCV apparatus were pretty stuck on there. I also wasn't able to disconnect the fat electrical connections that were all twisted around the hoses. And some of the mesh covering the wires was obscuring the left-most bolt on the thrust plate. For some reason, I couldn't get it to move enough to be able to fit the socket on the bolt head. All the other threads I read suggested the driver's side was hard to get to - feels like an understatement. Any tips would be appreciated.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top