Yep.... My moms 1994 Pontiac Grand prix is spooling oil out, if you drive it straight you need to add a quart every half-full tank of gas, or every week if it sits and its cold out... I crawled under the car one day to see what was up, I expected to see it dripping slowly.... and lets just say it was dripping like a leaky sink faucet, I was wondering what COULD be wrong, We think it was used as a street racer by somebodys kid because it had a few problems, rear struts, Engine sensors (Crank shaft sensor, Coolant sensor and another I forget) Looks to me like the cat has been pounded out and it has a stainless steel exhaust (Factory from what I can tell) Sounds like a bloody airplane when it gets shut off though, its a V6 3100 I think I am not going outside to check at the moment I will later. Another problem it had was somebody had rammed the shifter.... Twisted the gear linkage all up and its still not right but its livable. Anyways back on subject I want to know how/where the oil is leaking from, how much it MAY cost to fix at a dealership etc....

heres the pic



Car had only been sitting there 4-8 hours so it leaks pretty fast when its warm out and the oil is hot from running, any suggestions would be great!

Gunny

Thats what I thought craig, Just wondering. I think the gasket is a bit shot. It'll go in eventually but I was wondering how serious it was... to me it looks pretty bloody bad, had the car since September and its leaked like that, just toss quarts in and keep the oil up and dont slack on it is what we've been doing. It needs to go in though. Thanks for the reply mate!

Gunny

Hopefully it goes in to a shop in a week or two if all goes well!

Gunny

yea I am not too surprised for it having an oil leak like it does, Being driven by some older people probably and they had a kid who ragged it a little bit and it ran kinda cruddy when we bought it, some additives to the gas tank fixed that up nicely. Only has a 140,000 miles or so on it so its not that bad for an older vehicle. Starts right up and such.... just leaks oil thats the only thing wrong with it, that and the mechanic said it had a radiator replaced because there was oil in the coolant.... no idea how that could have happened. was only 1300 bucks plus the work so just under 2000 or so... not terrible.

Gunny

Hagar wrote on Feb 18^th, 2007 at 6:58pm:

If it is as bad as oil in the coolant, definitly have it in the garage tomorrow morning.

Oil leaks can be easy to fix or very expensive.  They can be a minor annoyance or a major problem.  It could be a simple mis-tightened oil filter.  It could be a cracked engine block.  It could be any of a number of seals or gaskets, some easy to fix (valve cover), some very difficult (crank bearing).  It could get worse, it could get better, it stay the same.  One thing is for sure: if the car runs out of oil it will die a violent death fairly quickly, like within minutes or seconds.  That'll mean an engine replacement!

Depending on which V6 you have in there, I tell you this. It will be VERY expensive if you have the smaller (but more powerful) engine. The hood looks really long, but GM really crammed the engine into it, so labor costs are going to be rather high. Believe it or not, there is more room in my 00 Grand Am with the I4 than there is in the Grand Prix, and the Prix's engine compartment is twice the size.

Quote:


Accidentally doubling up the oil filter gasket will also cause a very bad leak.
Ford uses a nylon gasket/washer on some of their drain plugs. I found cutting a gasket from a plastic milk carton works just as well and costs nothing.