dgrant3830

Yeah, the owner told me he had a bad oil leak and had arranged to get it looked at the next day. Well, as we can see, it was one day too late. This happened like two years ago or so but an oil leak was the cause. Its obvious in other ways as well, he didn't take good care of his car.

TEXHAWK0

I don't think I have ever owned a GM car that did not leak oil somewhere. The main seals have gotten a lot better, but it is difficult to eliminate every leak.

Ikester

Im surprised a GM motor still runs at 250k

dgrant3830

Why? A car that's taken care of will run forever or until you can't get parts any more. My '99 that I gave away, last I heard, it was at 330K and still going strong. Yes, there were failures over the years. Nothing lasts forever. The bottom end of it has never been apart but I'm sure its getting there. I did most of the top end when the lifters wore out at 274K. Still orginal timing chain though!

vettet80

Hah... i remember having to change timing belts on earlier toyotas, hondas, and DSMs every 60k-90k miles or risk getting stranded in the middle of nowhere when the belt breaks. i had a timing belt snap once out cruising. was stranded for 3 hours.

if the engine is an interferance motor, you risk wrecking the motor when the pistons slam onto valves as the crank and cams are still rotating out of time. fortunately a lot of american v8 cars use a timing chain that lasts about the life of the motor.

dgrant3830

Certainly a lot better than the old days with GM cars where the chains only last 65K miles.

Old Rotor Head

Had the same issue about a month ago. 135k. Mine turned out to be the compression washer on the drain plug was shot. Cost about $7 at Autozone attached attached to a new mag plug. Hope your's is that easy.

vettet80

hah... i already checked that. bummer that really isnt the problem in my case. according to the uv light and crank case dye im 99% sure the oil pan gaskets are leaking. looking forward to a really messy job this week. hope i dont tear my hands up. ugh...

gt1racer3

I have a 2000 C5 auto trans with about 130 miles on it. A few months ago it started to leak oil off and on. Sometime as mush 1qt in 100 miles in town driving short trips of about 20 to 30 miles at a time.
Then on a 800+ mile trip no leak at all.
It seems to be on the right rear of the motor. The rear main area is dry. The oil filter looks dry too.
I had in the shop for days and they could not find the leak.
I changed the PVC valve (after market) and it seemed to help some.
This is my only daily driver and since it leaks on the tail pipes I carry a fire extinguisher with me at all times.
I need help I've never seem a leak that stops and starts again.
Could there be some that would cause pressure to build up and force oil out but not all the time?
Does anyone know what is casuing this and how to fix it?
Thanks

duosy

My '99 had 394k miles and my '04 has 183K miles - no leaks.

Pounder

it wasn't the chains it was the gears, plastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pounder

another thing to check is the pcv system maybe with the miles you have more crankcase pressure, as far as GM and miles I have driven three GMC trucks well over 200,000 with few problems .

racebum

it's rare that a car with 250k isn't leaking oil. in fact, in my entire life, i have only came across one car with over 200k that wasn't leaking.

little '93 civic cx owned by a very old guy who bought it new and just kept driving it. eventually the head gasket went and i bought the car for a few hundred dollars, fixed the gasket and sold it for 2000

but the car had no oil leaks at all and he said it was on the original clutch

striper

Well, I've got an S-10 ZR2 4x4 with a 4.3 Vortec V6, which for those who don't know, is a Chevy 350 with two cylinders cut off. Its got 260k miles and it still runs great. If it didn't use so much gas I'd still daily drive it instead of buying a Sonic LTZ Turbo for a DD. It has the typical oil film to it but it hasn't affected the performance at all. I have a snow plow on it and it's sitting waiting for our next snow storm tonight. As far as fixing the leak it's been hard to diagnose, especially since this motor uses an oil cooler in the radiator along with a remote mount oil filter. I've had to replace these hoses twice over the years because they're a source of oil leaks at the fittings.