Hi Harry, I bought a 2006 XLR-V in June of 2020. The car is in great shape but it has an oil leak. Wasn't terrible but usually see a drip forming on a couple of bolts by the oil pan. I wipe them off and they'll reappear after a few days - again not a very bad leak.
After purchasing I took it to the dealer for a once over. They recommended leaving the leak alone because of the cost to remove the engine. Plus the car sat for most of the previous 3 years so the service manager said it might work itself out. I live in NJ and only use the car when the weather is nice so it's not used much this time of year.
It's up on a lift in my garage and noticed drips on the car below it yesterday (I have drip pans but they weren't positioned properly). This is a first - so whatever is going on appears to be getting worse. The garage is somewhat heated and maintains about a 55-degree temperature.
Do you know of any way to address the leak without removing the engine? I checked the bolts by the oil pan and they all appear to be torqued correctly. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
I just changed my oil pan: it wasn't leaking, just that it had been dragged along the ground one too many times for my taste. I had the majority of the front suspension off at the time so I supported the engine and took down the subframe = no need to remove the engine.
I believe in order to do it this way with all the front suspension etc in place would be to first disconnect the little arms that connect the height sensors, both front lower a-arms. Brake calipers off and supported, disconnect the upper a-arm or free the upper ball joints. That's a little tricky as the leaf spring (pushing down on the lower a-arms) has to be lowered carefully. Not a big deal, just requires a bit of thinking ahead.
The steering rack comes along with the front subframe so it needs to be disconnected at the shaft (relatively easy). What's more difficult is fidgeting with some of the hard lines and hoses to the power steering so the subframe can be lowered. Awkward is maybe a better term for that.
There's the ABS unit that's also bolted to the subframe and that's just a couple of bolts but you'd need to support it up as well.
With the engine supported, remove the two motor mounts. It's a good time to inspect / change motor mounts while you're in there.
I think that's about it besides maybe a few electrical connectors that might get pulled too much if you lower the subframe excessively or decide to remove it. You should now have enough room to get at the pan and the mating surface.
I removed my subframe entirely (just a few more little bits to undo) and gave it a really good clean-up (it needed it).
The arrangement I made to support the engine was just done with 2x4s and 2x6s screwed together and I used chains on lifting eyes to pull up on the lifting brackets you may or may not have on the exhaust side of the heads.
If you need further details, let me know - I might even have a picture or two of my spiffy wooden engine holding jig. Oh, and I did change the motor mounts on mine and recall that an 18mm ratchet wrench would have been a really handy tool to own at the time.
HTH!
Gord
p.s. The subframe is held on with only 4 nuts and the subframe itself is pinned to the chassis, so one only needs to jack it up on to the pins and it'll take its alignment just like the factory.
Sound familiar to anyone, worth ripping into it? Just started.
