Hi all,
I'm NOT a car person so if my question seems idiotic, it is. Please help me to determine the severity of an oil leak issue. Going to an auto repair shop without some knowledge would be costly, and we just bought a new house so money is tight.

My '92 Honda Accord had a small oil leak (underneath, near left front wheel, no splashing/spurting onto engine) until the other day. The oil warning light came on so I added a quart of 10W-30. I drove about a mile and the light came back on. Okay, so I added another quart, but as I'm pulling our of my parking spot, I see a puddle of oil under the car. In short, when the car is off, I can add oil and there's no leak. Once the car is on, it drips heavily out of the car (all from the same spot).

Considering the car's age and its generally good maint history, what might this be? Equally important, what can I expect in terms of repairs? Or, sadly, is this car worth fixing now? I really don't know if it'sgasket or O-ring, or much of anything for that matter. Any help or ideas would be good for me in terms of understanding what lays ahead. I love that dang car, but simply cannot afford a large repair bill; hence, my question to this forum. Y'all will give me a better sense than any run-of-the-mill mechanic who might be tempted to charge a lot. Thanks!

 

it could be as simple as a seal or gasket and it could be something major. Please clean it up a bit and post some pictures.

 

Thanks, Falkore24, but cleaning it up won't be possible. We're moving in a week and my job requires too many daylight hours to get anything done before the move (year end processing). I understand the need for pics, and realize you guys will have some difficulty assessing this problem. Thanks for the help.

 

I mean to wipe the oil off with a rag so that we can see whats in the pic.

 

do you smell burning oil when you are driving?

 

Sir Nasty,
No, no oil burning smell, and I'm familiar with that. It seems to be a major leak; the integrity of the oil system has been breached!

 

Then my guess would be an oil pan gasket or crank shaft seal. the reason I say that is then it will leak down but it doesn't hit anything hot enough to create the burning smell. This is just a random guess based on things i've seen in the past, if you want to know exactly what it is we'd need more information and/or pictures.

 

Or it could be as simple as a loose oil filter(pray that is the cause). However, a crank shaft seal or an oil pan gasket is not incredibly expensive to repair either.
I would think the oil pan gasket would be a slower leak, so my vote would probably be a seal.

 

You should be able to see for yourself if this fastoilleakis from the oil filter oroil pan.Add oil, jack the car, start the engine, get on you knees and take a look.

Other than those obvious things, four sealscould be leaking and they're all invisibleunder the upper and lower timing belt covers. So even with a photo that showed oil pouring from the bottom of the cover, we'd be hard pressed to determine which sealis leaking.

BTW, when were the timing belt, water pump and seals last replaced? This is a job that simply must be doneto that model car periodically, regardless of whether you think youcan afford it or not. This isthe perfect case of "pay me now, or pay me a whole lot more later." Even if yougeta "full-meal-deal" timing belt job (where all seals, belts, water pump are replaced), you'reprobably looking at no more than $600 - $800. Ifonly asingle seal is replaced, I'll let the HAF experts estimate what that would cost, but I do know that it's going to be a helluva lot more than the cost of the seal.

Because you cannot drive the car the way it is, your best bet is to call a Honda dealer, tell them the symptoms and ask if you can bring the carin for a repair estimate.Theywill tell you if something under the covers is leaking. Beyond that point(removing the covers to determine exactly what's amiss), they'll start charging for labor.