NJMurvin

I didn't notice it, but my brother-in-law nearly had a fit after parking in his driveway. It's not that much, but he's pretty finicky.

I never leaked a drop before the dealer changed the oil two weeks ago. I don't think it's just spillage. I put several hundred miles on the truck after the oil change and before the driveway incident. So, what's the likely culprit (drain plug, oil filter, other)? If it's not something really easy for me to tighten or adjust, I plan to take it back to the dealer and make them fix it. But, if it's something simple, I don't mind doing it to save the hassle. Thoughts?

steelblitzkrieg

Maybe they overfilled it?

Sure it's oil, not coolant, not sure of the 04.5's, but my 06 Coolant is easily mistaken for Oil?

Leaking injector that raised the oil level enough to puke out the overflow?

NJMurvin

I haven't crawled underneath yet to see where it's coming from. I plan to put down some paper to isolate the location of the leak. Hopefully, it's something close to the bottom of the engine or it will be difficult to trace. If it came out of the overflow, is there a tube or something it would come out of?

scottsjeeprolet

Easier to diagnose if you could tell us where the oil mark is.
Is it dripping from the oil plug? Coming from the pass side by the oil filter?
Is it dripping a lot, could just be coming from the blow by tube. Drivers side front of engine tube hanging down.

Lubemanager

I had an oil change at the dealer only once; after a week I noticed a small spot of oil on the drive way. I crawled underneath, reached up and tightened the oil filter by hand. I dusted off my filter wrench and tightened it. Last time the dealer has ever looked at it (two years ago)

Spooler

Yeap, I always give it 1/4 turn with the filter wrench to ensure it is tight. I also wipe the oil off of the filter house. This does two things. Makes sure I don't have a oil filter gasket left on it and makes it clean.....LOL

Peterbilt

Just make sure your oil filter is on right. If they forgot to take the old gasket off and put the new one over it it can blow out and quickly take out your engine. But if that was the case it probably would have blown by now.

Pete

92'1stGen

First of all, how much is "not that much"? If I park on the concrete slab at my house, which faces down hill, I'll get a few drips from the blow by tube. I don't have a problem though if I park up hill. It's perfectly normal if it's that.

NJMurvin

Well, I don't know what's considered normal. But, normal for me in 45k miles has been not to leak a drop. After this last oil change, it has definitely leaked. How much? On my bro-in-law's concrete driveway at 105deg (Palm Springs area), it created about a 2" diameter stain. I looked at my driveway at home (it's stamped and colored - so harder to see) where it's parked and there's evidence of some leaking about the same.

When I get a chance, I'm going to crawl under it and look around. I peeked under it where I have it parked now and don't see anything. I'm hoping they overfilled it slightly and it has worked itself out (wishful thinking).

dj_souvlaki

we have always been trained and told only tighten by hand.

if you tighten too much with the wrench you will squish the gasket.

always till it touches and a turn and a half by hand only.

Spooler

Never ever ever had an issue or had an oil filter get loose. I only do it if I can use a band wrench or filter hat. My grip is not as good as it used to be LOL....

tryNto

thats probably 1 drop, 2 at the most... get under and wipe the pan, oil filter, then drive it and look for fresh sign...

NJMurvin

Got it home last evening and, before the Laker/Nuggets game started, I put some paper under the pan area. Nothing there for the first hour. Haven't checked today yet (took my other car to work) as I was in a hurry to get out. Keeping my fingers crossed that it was just an overfill or sloppy spillage during the change that worked itself out.

NJMurvin

I finally got a chance to crawl under the truck and take a look. Nothing coming from the pan area or filter that I can see. I can see oil dripping from the cross member of the frame toward the front of the engine (right above the steering damper - I assume that's what it is - horizontally mounted shock absorber). Anyway, it's dripping from that cross member (which is hollow) onto the damper and onto the ground. I did check the oil level. It is definitely overfilled. It's at least an inch above the "safe" area.

I'm going to keep an eye on this for a few weeks and see if it persists. Would overfilling cause any other damage? If I'm going to call the dealer out on this, I have to do it soon. It's already been a couple of weeks since they did the oil change.

Spooler

It's coming out the crankcase vent tube. Make sure you ckeck you oil for diesel..... You may have a bad injector helping you make oil.