My Dodge Caravan is leaking quite a bit of oil here are the symptoms so far:
-mileage is just over 200000 km.
-oil pressure lights turns on and oil has to be added.
-walking past the van after a drive, oil smell is noticeable at the front
-ocassionally van is burning oil upon starting the engine, this does not appear to happen every time maybe when I am parked on an incline. This has occurred twice so far.
I have researched this and have opened the front "rocker cover baffle" and attempted to clean the drain hole. I have not done this for the rear cover yet.
Any suggestion would be most appreciated and thanks in advance.
If you want to solve oill leak problems, here is how!
#1 - Take the van to an Auto Detailing shop. Have them do a full engine shampoo.
#2 - Take the van to your mechanical shop. Have them do an oil change, and then add a "UV Tracer" to the oil.
#3 - Drive the van for a week.
#4 - Take the van back to your shop. They will illumiate the engine with a "black light" and every single little spot where oil is leaking will show up clear as daylight.
You can then get an idea of how much it is going to cost to fix the various leaks, and which ones are more serious. From there you can set your priorities as to what you want to get fixed first.
You did not say which engine you have. I have the 3.3. The front crank seal on these engines is a common oil leak problem. Fortuantely it is not a complicated job. The most complicated thing about it being that the harminc balancer needs to be removed to get at the seal. The whole job should be less than $100 including all parts, labour, shop charges, and taxes.
Note that using the UV tracer will clearly show if the crank seal is leaking or not.
My shop did not charge me anything for putting the tracer in! Of course, they did get the work of replacing the crank seal as well, so they did not "lose money" on the deal either. But if you insist, just check your local auto supply shop. They gotta have the stuff. It is just a little sealed pouch. You tear off the end and squeeze it like a tube into the engine oil. If my shop did not charge for it, then I bet that it costs less than $5, heck maybe even less than $1, but you will have to check into it since I don't know.
OUCH! That DAMN 3.0 litre Mitsubishi! I had one in a 1994 Acclaim, and I gave up on it. The one I had ran like a piece of crap. I constantly had problems with it running rough in "wet" weather. Why the heck any engine of that vintage would have a Distributor is beyond me!
And don't get me started about the way it literally PUKED oil! I mean really puked it! It used to be pull into the gas station, fill up the oil and check the gas! I could always tell where my car had been because there was literally a TRAIL of oil left behind! I sold that car about 4 years ago, and there is STILL a HUGE oil stain in my parking space from it. :(
Every Chrysler I have had since has had the 3.3 litre engine - and that was NO ACCIDENT! The 3.3 is a work horse - and, unlike the 3.0 Mitsubishi, has NO TIMING BELT to have to screw around with!
Sorry to hear about your eng>Thanks for the excellent suggestion. Can I purchase the UV Tracer my >self?
Common problems with the 3.0 with high mileage...... the valve cover gaskets get hard and they leak bad, the cam shaft seals will leak along with the crank seal. The valve guide seals will get hard and cause the engine to smike at idle, and the head gaskets will deteriate as the vehicle ages especially if the coolant wasnt serviced at regular basis. My sugestion is if you are planning to keep this vehicle for awhile, have the heads removed and sealed from the top including valve stem oil seals
There is no need to clean out the baffle on that year vehicle. that problem has been fixed in the early 90's and it didnt effect the rear cover.
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