Reasons Why Your Car Might Be Leaking or Losing Oil

Among the most common explanations why drivers carry their vehicles in for inspection is for oil losses and leaks.

It may be a small pinhole leakage in a gasket, a visible gusher from a faulty seal, or a leak from any number of sources. In any case, it’s critical to locate the source of your car’s oil leak and determine which fixes are required to stop the leak and keep your oil from leaving the position where it’s most needed—inside your engine.

Burning Oil

The combustion chamber is located in the centre of your engine and is where all of the magic takes place. Normally, the piston rings and valve seals keep oil out of this chamber. If your valve seals or rings fail, your oil will begin to leak into your combustion process, where it will be gradually digested and expelled as a disgusting blue-grey smoke.

If your valve seals or rings are leaking, you can find that your oil is vanishing, but unless you have bad gaskets or other gaps leading to the outside of engine, you won’t really see oil on the ground or the engine. This is why, no matter what your oil seals are whether its Toyota oil seals or Nissan oil seals, they must be securely kept in place.

This is due to the fact that oil from a minor leak of this kind, such as one partly distorted piston ring or one bad valve, would most likely be burned up during the combustion process. If the issue persists and several rings or valve seals fail, the car will most likely stop running as oil fills the combustion chambers, removing the vehicle’s ability to process gasoline.

Unfortunately, if this happens, you’re looking at some hefty repair costs, particularly if you need to go to a garage, which is highly recommended for any car you can’t afford to lose.

Improper Installations

Although it’s more common after a do-it-yourself or shade-tree gasket repair, even experienced mechanics will make the error of improperly fitting one of the many gaskets that hold oil inside your car. The most common cause of this is that somebody overtightened an oil pan or valve cover gasket or did not spread the tightness equally around the entire gasket. When this happens, the gasket may become “squished,” allowing oil to escape.

And, based on how loosely the gasket is secured, this simple error may result in either a “pinhole” leak or a large gush. The same thing could happen when changing an oil filter, which is much easier to overtighten or install incorrectly than you would expect.

Cylinder Head Trauma

A broken cylinder head or engine block is a much less common cause of leaked oil. When this occurs, you cannot even notice any oil on the engine or the ground. This is normally due to oil leaking into your coolant system rather than out onto the ground as you would imagine. In any case, you can also validate this diagnosis by testing your oil and coolant caps. Either or both will be muddy brown and smell strongly of syrup and oil.