Engine Oil Leak!

Been suspecting something was amiss with Superblue’s “continence” of late whenever I would move her from a parking spot, as I kept noticing a dinner plate-sized puddle of oil on the pavement. Still, I would have thought that it was from some other source than her. I then noticed my oil pressure gauge (the OEM style) flickering a bit from time to time, and discovered she was down about 3 quarts of oil. :open_mouth: From that point on, I have been keeping a close watch and she seems to be losing around a quart a week or so. :angry:.

I took Superblue by a tech’ the other day, but since he had another car on his lift at the time, he could not get under her to check things out (we KNOW how low our cats are) … I did try using the cardboard trick earlier, and it seems the source of the leak is about mid-center of the engine compartment (side-to-side) and some distance behind the radiator area toward the firewall. Based on that, the tech opined that his thought was that it was a leaky oil pressure sender unit. I did have this problem before with Supercat, my '95 coupe, and a quick re-tightening of it with - of all things - the spare tire lug nut wrench (yep, it’s a perfect fit :+1:) and problem solved.

How is it that these pressure senders work their way loose from road vibration? The tech said often with heat and time the porcelain/plastic part of the sender cracks, but I pointed out to him that I have the OEM-style sender, which, except for the plastic connector, is all metal (brass?).

Thoughts on this, anyone?

No idea: in 40+ years, Ive never seen a properly-installed one come loose.

Best to wait for techs finding. Oil leak could be so many things - cam seal, valve cover, oil cooler lines, rear main seal. Hope yours is simple.

Mine was doing same…had help …new sender installed…no big leak anymore. …it used to run down back of engine and you would think a seal is out…no.more …just that oil light sender…cost me 160.00

Thanks (everyone). Me, too. I was thinking worst case scenario - leaking crankshaft seal, given the location, but I guess those are, fortunately, pretty rare (?)

I did buy one of those “Lizard Cams” they are selling on T.V. of late at W-M today. Neat little lighted, color LED video camera on 4’ long fiber optic cable. Hopefully it will let me see something soon on the issue (raining here like crazy at the moment, so waiting patiently). I can also use it to view the fuse boxes and locate particular fuses when replacing the ones under the knee bolsters, seeing as I have such a hard time getting into the “XJS Lotus” position to do so. :angry: I’m thinking I might also be able to use it to snake down through the WW fluid filler tube to finally find out why, although the pump is apparently running and the system has fluid, I have NO fluid coming out the WW jets anymore (although it does at the headlights). :confused: