breakerfalls

Do those "oil leak stopper" solutions actually work?

I've got this bad oil leak that is coming off the side of my engine somewhere. A while back I got my oil changed at some Jiffy-Lube type place and they put the drain plug in crooked and all the oil leaked out before I even got home. As I was turning onto my street it started smoking, so I checked it out, fixed the plug, put in more oil and went back there and freaked out on them all. There was a very small oil leak before, but now it's gotten pretty bad.

I bought a pint of this stuff and put it in today, I guess I'll find out in a few weeks.

Has anyone ever had a small leak that it's actually stopped? I'm sure my case is too much to be solved so easily...

-Keith

ldivinag

probably not...

where is your leak exactly?

try to narrow down the place. could be a rather simple thing such as tightening down a few bolts.

it's not like you got a big hole on the side of your engine...

BruceTS

The biggest mistake you made was fixing the drain plug, at that point, Jiffy-Lube can't be accounted for. Since you smoked the motor, you probably overheated the block, in which case the head is probably warped, causing that small leak to get bigger. If you had done nothing, called Jiffy-Lube and let them deal with the problem, you may have been able to get your engine rebuilt for free. It's hard to tell without knowing exactly where the oil is leaking from, if it a minor or major issue.

The only possibility you have, is if Jiffy-Lube has accepted responsibility and you have it in writing. How long ago did this occur?

Those oil leak stopper products are meant as a temporary fix and by no means will last. Usually people who buy and sell vehicles will use this to hide the problem.

92 Toyota

Never,never,never go to those places to have your oil changed!I also learned the hard way.There was a place around here that my wife use to take her car to.Well they changed the oil & added brake fluid except the idiot doing it put power steering fluid in instead of brake fluid.Well after about 2 weeks you can imagine what it did to the brake system.Anyways they had to replace the entire brake system(everything!),pay for a rent-a-car for a week,towing from Orlando,Fl to West Palm,Fl(about 3 hour trip).Needless to say I do it all myself now.

breakerfalls

When I put the plug back in I knew I was probably screwing myself over but I had no choice. I had just moved to Tampa not even a month or so before and I didn't know anyone in the area. I had just moved into a new apartment and had absolutely no money. I couldn't afford a tow truck and I didn't know anyone that could have helped me.

When I got down there the guy gave me a bunch of ˟˟˟˟ about how none of his guys would do something like that and that it wasn't possible. He knew I had no proof, I made the decision to drive it back myself and I know know that it was a mistake to believe they would accept responsibility.

The leak is coming from where the head bolts onto the rest of the engine. When I was having some other stuff done a shop told me that I had probably burnt up the valve seals or something. They said to fix it would require a ton of labor and some cheap rubber seals.

So yeah, I'm screwed.

-Keith

Mike Murrell

"When I got down there the guy gave me a bunch of ˟˟˟˟ about how none of his guys would do something like that and that it wasn't possible".

One of the posters above said it all. You should have pulled over and called the idiots at Jiffy Lube. Anything is possible, especially when dealing with these quick lube places. Actually, this goes on everywhere, to include Toyota dealers.

A guy I work with had about 12 qts dumped in one of his Toyota cars by a Toyota dealer. The thing was smoking all over hell and creation as he pulled out. He immediately backed up and drove the 50 yds. or so back to the service check in area. They fixed it.

I feel sorry for people who don't change their own fluids & filters. This area of auto maint. is where shops really screw people over.
It's very common to take a vehicle in for a total fluids flush and all filters changed. You get home, pop the hood and find out that absolutely nothing was done. This happens more often at dealerships and independent garages. At Jiffy Lube they know you're watching, unfortunately, their employees are not trained to do this kind of work or their attitudes are all wrong.

No one will ever change fluids on my cars/trucks.

MTL_4runner

Can you get us a pic so we can see exactly where it is coming from?

breakerfalls

I'll see if I can get a picture in a day or so. I don't have a digital camera, but I have a roll of film that's almost full and acess to a scanner. I'll use the last few pics on the roll to get shots of the oil leak and if they turn out good I'll put them up here.

Thanks for the help!

... and by the way, I now change all my fluids on my own. I used to take it to lube places because I found it easier to just pay someone than make time to do it myself. Lesson learned.

-Keith

breakerfalls

Alright, I got a picture. The arrows point to the main spots where it's leaking from...

Not the best picture ever, but it's all I could do.

-Keith

breakerfalls

Okay, I must have screwed something up because it didn't post. Let's try this again...

sandcrawler

dude,

looks like your valve cover gasket.

if you're good with these kinds of things, the job is cheap on parts, expensive in time, i believe.

should be $300 or so in parts & labor at a stealership. less at a local shop that knows what it's doing.

breakerfalls

I think that's what someone else told me before, except that they estimated it'd be 500 to 700 after the cheap valves and the labor.

Maybe I'll call around and try and get some quotes from some nearby shops.

Thanks,
Keith

BruceTS

Yep it looks like your valve covers......

ldivinag

first thing first...

see if the bolts of the cover is loose...

go around and tighten them down. dont OVER tighten or that might make it worse.

you know which bolts are loose...

breakerfalls

That was the first thing I tried. There were 2 bolts in the back I couldn't get to, but I tightened up the rest some. It didn't seem to make any difference either way.

Thanks for the suggestion though. Has anyone else had this specific problem and had the valve cover gaskets replaced? How much did you pay to have it taken care of?

I'm not too mechanically inclined, but if it's a matter of removing just a few large peices then I might go for it. I just don't like taking apart things with lots of intricate parts.

-Keith

93-4runner

My driver's side valve cover gasket was leaking pretty bad on my 93 3.0L a few months ago. I simply relpaced the gasket. About 10 bucks for the gasket and a couple hours of install time. Its not that hard at all. I put some "goo" on the gasket in the corners so I let it dry over night. Not a drop has leaked since. Now my rear main seal, thats another story. Its been leaking too. So, I put some of that Bars stop leak in it aout 2 weeks ago. The bottle said should stop leak in 250 miles or 3 days. Well its still leaking the same. So, the stop leak stuff didnt work for me. Hope it works for you though. By the way, I live in Tampa too.