vegascoug

Oil was running low, always had a slow leak as with most 4Runners. 1997 Ltd with just over 200k on it. Put some Lucas Oil treatment and 2 quarts of oil, drove fine and all was great for several hours. Let the truck sit for a bit and took it for a shot trip to the store and smelled oil as I pulled in. Looked underneath and oil is EVERYWHERE. Looks to have come from the drive side, but sprayed all over the underneath of the truck. Oil filter is still on, looks like oil pressure switch is covered in oil, not sure if that went bad? Not even sure where to begin, have to clean it up tomorrow and put oil in it to start to see if I can find a leak, because there is no oil in it now it's all over my driveway.

Guessing something bad and expensive happened

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Not much to do till you find the leak.

If it was that low on oil how did you get home??

maachine

check the sender for sure. they are cheap. had to do this on my mom's PT cruiser a few weeks ago. oil all over the bottom of the engine compartment. they are usually made out of metal and plastic and develop a leak after a while.

vegascoug

Haven't gotten to the leak origin yet, but did go back and see a large trail of oil beginning about 3/4 mile from home, right after a speed bump. Didn't scrape anything, but the oil started dumping there, and fast. Oil strip is about 2-3ft wide and goes for a while! Oil light came on right before I got home. Will take the thing apart today and try and find the culprit, just never heard of a complete oil dump like that. Looks as if it sprayed out towards drivers side front tire, all over the inside. Doesn't go much past filter, so not sure if that leaked or what. Not how I wanted to spend my Saturday!!!

maachine

well the oil pressure switch/ sender (which ever it is) has pressure behind it, so if it blows out, it'll spray.

vegascoug

I finally got the plates off to get to it, and it appears as if it came from the filter. I checked that and it was loose, I assume since such a thing as an oil filter wrench exists this shouldn't be finger tight (or loose).

Now I have a list of questions for Jiffylube. Middle bolt on the front plate was only half in and badly stripped. The other two were almost frozen in there, needed PB Blast and a hammer to jar them loose, not sure they would be THAT tight if they changed my filter in Dec? I don't see a way to get that filter off/on without removing the plates. So either numbnuts oil guy couldn't get a wrench on there and just tightened it up as good he could, or it wasn't changed. My guess is if there is pressure, and that was loose enough, the seal could blow and I'm out of oil.

That's where I'm starting, then off to the car wash!!!

maachine

what engine do you have in that thing? i know on my 3.4L its easier to get to the oil filter from the drivers side wheel well. much easier than taking the skid plate off. i know for a fact you can get an oil filter socket in there from the wheel well.

vegascoug

Got it all cleaned up and put 2 qts of oil in it, no drips yet so I'm hoping it was just the loose filter.

Man that was a mess!!!

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Why quickie Mart Oil changes ??

I had a female friend that lost a engine because of one of those places.

I always put my oil filters on by hand never had any leaks

Keith B.

I had a weird, intermittent oil leak like yours last summer. Turned out it was the K&N filter, or possibly some crud between the K&N filter gasket and engine. The guy who replaced the filter *said* the filter was on tight when he removed it. The filter looked normal when I examined it in the service shops's drain pan. Been fine since(w/o a K&N filter)>

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

First to call those tool catchers a skid plate is a joke . They are no way even close to being a skid plate.

Mine has long since been recycled as part of a toaster .

If you use Quickie Mart oil changes these things do tend to happen.

I am sure some places are good I just never have seen one.

Most often is stripping out the threads in the oil pan from using a impact to remove and replace drain plugs. Then they tell the unsuspecting that it was damaged before they touched it.

Then they say the only fix is to replace the oil pan

I have had to fix a few of these over the years.

Glad it was only a loose filter.