Hello,

My friend noticed a small (3 inch diameter) small oil stain when I was over at his house, it was enough that when he wiped it with his fingers he had oil on it, and I guess in my garage a good sized stain, which I thought was just from an oil change I had that leaked a bit (cus I could not see any oil dripping even for a few mins when I noticed it not too long after my most recent oil change. as I could not notice any active issues, this was also months ago... granted I work from home but I still drove plenty since then, no lights, no warning etc. Temps always seemed fine.

here is a pic of the more recent (i was there for like an hour or 2 tops) but when I got home I took a video under the car and didn't get any drops so idk. Oil level if checked in the dash says underfilled BUT again no warning, only saw it when I checked.


Thoughts? here are some pics:











the cleaner pics are from the left side of the engine bay, (below the cover, sorta stuck my phone in there. the dirtier oil is all on the right side, it looks pretty damn bad, but I hope it's small enough that it just the belts spraying it but have no clue where to start.


Maybe hopefully valve cover gasket? not sure how to tell really. about 75k miles on it.

Thanks.

 

Do you still have the belly pan in place?

That looks like a pretty major leak. If it were me, I’d get a can of Gunk engine cleaner and hose down the engine with the cleaner and then hose down the engine with a low pressure pressure washer. Then you can see where the leak is coming from.

Who did the oil change? Did they replace the rubber gasket O ring on the filter cap?

Are you using a quick lube that is draining from under the car or are you sucking it out from above like the dealerships does?

 

Yeah the belly pan is still under the car, it does look it leaked a bit towards the middle of car down below, it's a bit black as well (oil sheen i mean) Firestone, not quite a quick lube, but a chain. I Do not know how they drained it, but I am betting from below. as I think they were under the car more now that I think about it. (my filter is on the passenger side of the car, and that side isn't as bad) not sure what they may or may not have changed, but I am pretty sure the old oil stain in my garage has been there a while, it's a good size too, but looked like it slowly did that.

 

The belly pan can hold a lot of liquid. By the time it shows up on the pavement, you’ve lost a lot.
I’m alarmed by your oil level. I do my own oil changes at 5,000 miles and I’ve never seen oil loss like that. All my cars are at similar mileage to yours.
There are a couple usual suspects on oil leaking but you need to get the existing oil residue cleaned up so you can see where the “new” oil is coming from.

Changing the oil yourself is crazy easy now that you don’t have to lift them to drain the oil.

 

I would add oil before running it again.

 

They may have overfilled ,and pressure pushed oil past some seals,most common front covers upper lower, then the oil filter housing gasket let loose,but drain rest of the oil out and put fresh oil in and monitor

 

BUT without a dipstick how do i even know how much to put in??

 

Version 1, suck out what’s there so you know you’re empty. Put back 6 liters. “Full” is 6 liters.
Version 2, add a quart. See what it says. Add another quart or whatever. If you have the sucker you can take a little back out if you over fill.

 

One known oil leak cause is the vacuum pump on the front of the engine.

+1 on adding more oil prior to restarting the engine.

It would also be a good idea to change the water outlet pipes as the ones shown in the photos are the original design that can fail and cause catastrophic engine damage.

 

The vacuum pump is leaking on my Pace S. I tried the new seal from RKX and it still leaks. My BMW tech buddy says the Pierburg pumps warp. Only thing to do is replace it. FCP had a 20% off deal going last month but mine is just a drip. At the moment.