Yes, there was a dreaded PUDDLE on the floor in the garage where my car had been parked, undriven, for 3 days, when I pulled it out to drive it last night. It was a very light amber, and looked felt and smelled very much like the freshly changed engine oil that I compared it to off of the dipstick. In my experience with American V8 cars, a little leaking oil is usually not something to stop the presses over, and I didn't stop the presses in this case either.

The puddle was very small, around the size of a 4 o4 5 inch diameter pancake, and was positioned under the drivers side of the engine bay.

Now, there's a chance it wasn't actually engine oil. It could be power steering fluid, but I doubt it.

Any guesses as to what it is and where it's likely coming from? Some of you seasoned Jag owners/techs may peg this thing right away. I have some ramps I can pull the car onto, and I plan on doing that. I will probably get to that sometime this week. I'll update as I go.

BTW, it drove last night and today without incident.

 

Don't forget that the leak continues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so eventually there will be none left and disaster will strike. A 4-5" patch sounds quite a lot to me. Are you sure it is oil and not coolant. These cars are more prone to coolant than oil leaks

 

Don't neglect to check the path of the leak on the windage tray. the leak may not be coming from where you think it is.
I,m with Fraser. This does not sound like a small leak.

 

So it's for sure not coolant. It's an "oil" of some sort. I know what coolant looks, smells, and TASTES like. Anyone who's changed a lower radiator hose that's been in place for years while laying on the ground knows all about coolant! Then there's the radiators I've replaced.

Thing is, it didn't show any signs of a leak at all on overnight stays, or on another period of several days of inactivity, over the last month of ownership. Only after left still for several days did it show signs of of the leak, this time.

Understood about following the path of the leak to its source. I'll try to look for it tonight. Indeed I understand that if left neglected, whatever it is will "bleed out" to nothing over time. I can assure you, in any event, that what I observed amounted to less than an ounce of total volume.

 

If the oil is leaking above the exhaust manifold and the car is driven daily, the oil may be burning off before it ever reaches the ground. When the car has sat for a few days and the oil isn't burnt off, then it puddles underneath.

 

Jamey, that's just the kind of clue I was hoping for. First place to look then: Valve cover gasket, driver's side.

 

I traced my leak to the flexible hose coming from the tranny to the radiator. The flexible part was "weeping" It looked just like clean oil to me, or dirty power steering fluid.

TRACE IT DOWN

Tom

 

Tom, newbie question I know, but you're stating that the tranny fluid in the ZF box isn't the typical ATF red color, but a clearish sort of stuff?

 

The more I think about the engine oil theory, above the exhaust manifold theory, the more I believe that can't be the case. If this were the case, my car would stink. I've had more than one car that leaked engine oil that would mostly burn off. That stinks! My car doesn't stink at all. It smells good, inside and out, under power, at idle, and at rest. Not that an engine oil leak isn't completely ruled out, but unlikely. A tranny line leak sounds much more plausible.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...n-leaks-45665/

I remembered to do some research here, and the first thread I visited was the linked one above, describing very similar symptoms. Now I also know the fluid's clear, and I am now almost 100% certain the puddle was tranny fluid, and that it's most likely either the pan, pan sleeve, or a line. Thanks all. I'll keep you posted. Any other advice is always appreciated by this shadetree mechanic.

 

I did reason out an easy and effective solution to my problem: drive every single day! From what I've learned, I simply need to keep temps up, then all the seals, gaskets, etc. will stay properly swollen to prevent seepage! Only problem with that is when temps drop, right? On cold days, I'm likely to get seepage overnight whether I drive or not. Oh well. Nice thought! My scheme might work well in the tropics.

 

I put the R up on ramps today to find the leak source. Before I reveal the leak source, I bought these ramps for my old 1993 modified Mustang. I could never use them for the Stang, cuz it was riding on aftermarket springs and was too low for them. They are perfect for the R. I highly recommend them.

The source of the leak is definitely from the pan area. I remember from reading the post I pasted into a previous post that there's what I think is referred to as a ring seal or gasket. My guess would be this issue. So my thinking tells me that at 66K miles that a complete trans service, including new pan, gasket, seals, fluid and filter are in order. I am now considering whether or not to tackle this project myself.

I also believe that I may be able to skate along with things like they are for a couple more months. If it leaks very little or not at all for a time, I'll try to limp along. Keep in mind that I cover less that 1K miles per month, usually around 500 miles, and I drive almost every day. In other words, this problem, which only causes a leaking situation when the car has sat idle and had a chance to have seals and other surfaces to fully cool and contract, hardly ever crops up for me. The only caveat to all this is that it could have leaked fluid before I ever bought it and that a tipping point of fluid levels low enough to cause problems could be closer than I think. I'll keep a close eye on it, and work toward resolving the issue before the end of 2011.

 

Good, waiting for your response and hopefully you will fix it for good

 

Yep, it was in mine, looked and felt just like power steering oil....

-t-