Oil leak: Front Main Seal or oil pan gasket?

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by shoppa, Mar 21, 2005.

  1. shoppa

    shoppa Guest

    My wife's 92 SL1 has been leaking oil out of the passenger side of the
    engine for the past year or so. It collects around the lower motor
    mount, drips on the ground, and also some gets sprayed around by the
    serpentine belt to put a layer of grime on the bottom of the hood.
    Maybe a quart or two disappears every six months.

    Is this "obviously" the oil pan gasket or the front main seal? I
    tightened the oil pan bolts that I could get to and they *were* loose.
    I suppose if I do this I may as well just do both, as it seems like
    doing either involves pulling the pulley etc. Doing the oil pan gasket
    seems like it'd require pulling the exhaust manifold too. I did the
    transmission pan gasket a year or two ago when it started leaking but
    all I had to do to get to that was pull the battery tray.

    Any advice? I have done some front main seal replacements in the past
    but they were all with the engine pulled, and I'd really rather not
    pull the engine if that's necessary on a Saturn. I think the pulley
    can be pulled through the wheel well, am I right? And I don't look
    forward to removing the exhaust manifold just to replace the oil pan
    gasket. It certainly seems easier to just add oil every couple of
    months :)

    Tim.
     
    shoppa, Mar 21, 2005
    #1
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