Caravan COLD Engine Oil Leak?? HELP!!

MICHELLE H. · 2010-01-21T02:34:41+00:00

Hi everyone, I am hoping that someone can help me out here and try to solve "a big mystery" that none of my mechanics can seem to solve. I have a 1995 Dodge Caravan with 170,000 thousand miles. Its the 3.0L V6 engine. A little over a month ago, the car developed a MAJOR oil leak, where oil would basically just POUR out of the engine. The car would lose about 1 quart of oil every 5 minutes the engine was running. My regular mechanic of 10+ years was "positive" that it was the "rear main seal" and he doesn't do major engine work anymore, so he recommended some other guy that I never heard of or went to before. Anyway, I brought the car there, and the guy looked at it, and he said that the "crank seal" was totally gone, and that the car needed a new "timing belt" as well. And sense I can't afford a new car right now, because I am only working part-time, and need transportation, I told him to fix it. Plus, I was HOPING to get at least another year or two out of this car, because 2 years ago, I spent $2,000 dollars for a rebuilt transmission when the tranny went out, and last year I spent $800 dollars for a new fuel pump, and another $800 dollars on all new brakes and rotors! So in the last 2 years alone, I have sank $3,600 into this car!!!! It took 2 days, and the cost was $800 bucks!!! So, I bring the car home, and find out that now, the engine is completely doing something else. What happens now, is that now the engine is leaking oil when the engine is COLD. When you 1st start the car and the engine is cold, oil DRIPS out. As the engine warms up, the leak slows down, and stops after the engine gets hot. So I bring it back to the guy, and leave it there for another 2 days, and he calls me back and tells me that he "CAN'T find anything wrong with it, and doesn't see it dripping any oil", but yet charges me another $50 bucks to look at it. So Monday night I put a piece of cardboard under there. Tuesday morning I go to start it up, and sure enough drip, drip, drip...

Jan 21, 2010 21 Replies

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aarcuda69062 16 years ago

When you took the van in the first time how many miles since the last oil change?

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MICHELLE H. 16 years ago

When I brought the car to him the 1st time, I had one of those little reminder stickers up in the windshield which he must have seen, because its gone now, and if he bothered to READ it, he would have seen that the cars last oil change was 6,000 miles ago.

So the old oil filter had 6,000 miles on it!!!!!

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