I just noticed my Jeep is leaking oil. All environmental factors aside, this is not good, though not altogether surprising. I have not yet taken a closer look, so it may be something as simple as the plug in the oil pan having loosened up, but we’re talking about a '91 Renegade. This could, indeed, be the beginning of the end. I’m steeling myself for a closer inspection.:smack:
I recently noticed how my grocery-getter 1988 T-bird would get really hot after 20 miles or so. And overheat if I went further.
Turns out, my radiator was leaking. My car was spewing droplets of Propylene Glycol all over Long Island - nay - the Globe!
<rant>
I replaced the radiator yesterday. It was a fairly straight-forward job - yet the vunderkind of Detroit who decided to route a straw of tranny oil through the radiator made it a curse-spewing ordeal. It was difficult to get those threads to match up again - and my scored and bruised hand shows it.
</rant>
Car runs fine now. 
Do fix your jeep. Yeah, like my car - it probably forebodes the end of the engine.
It may not be all that bad. My '89 Toyota pickup had developed a MAJOR oil leak (big puddles in the garage, needed another quart every 200 miles or so) a while back. Turned out to be the front crankshaft seal. A day in the shop and $120 later it’s back on the road and ready to go another 160,000 miles.
Good luck to you.
A few months after we bought our '89 Shadow from its previous owner we noticed that it had started to leak oil. The problem turned out to be a simple crack in the oil pressure gauge.
Wait a minute, not the pressure gauge. 'Twas the pressure regulator.
Oil leaks are common in older cars and can be as simple as a loosened oil filter, which you can tighten up by hand in under ten seconds, or as complex as “You want how freakin much?!?”
The best way to detemine the source of the leak is to get under the car and wipe away all the oil on the oil pan, the filter and anywhere else you site the black stuff. It is preferable to use a rag rather than your bare hands, particularly if the engine is hot (believe or not, you have to tell some people this). If you continue to see oil dripping before you start the engine, then there may be some oil that needs to be wiped on the top of the engine. If you have to start the engine and can bear being under it while it’s running, look to see where any oil is originating. If oil drips in one eye, use the other one while you wipe the other eye (again, a rag is preferable here than your bare hand).
At this point in the game, you’ll have to go pee. If you’re a male and don’t have the good fortune to have a urinal in your garage (highly recommended), and you share an abode with a female, your better off just using a neighbor’s tree than to enter the house.
Once nature’s calling is complete, go back and stop the engine and proceed to wipe the oil again as you will have forgotten from where you saw the oil leak’s origination. Once you have pinpointed where the leak is occuring, you’re ready to get in there and fix the problem.
Aside from the fact that you will probably consume twenty to thirty good rags in the process, there’s a good chance you can fix the problem yourself. And if a neighbor is laughing at you in the process, you can fix them by sneaking out at night while they sleep and pouring a little oil under their car. Do this about five nights in row and watch them get dirty next weekend.
Most vehicle oil leaks come from one of these sources: Leaking front or rear main seal. Leaking oil pan gasket. Leaking valve cover gasket. The rear main seal is usually the most difficult and expensive repair. The pan or cover gaskets are a pretty simple DIY. The seals I’d leave to a professional unless you’re a very good shadetree mech to start with.
b.
My '89 Dodge Daytona, purchased last year, developed major leaks from the turbo lines a few months ago; there were other problems that had to be addressed at the same time. It cost a chunk, but no more puddles now.
Right now it’s getting a repair related to the oxygen sensor. Can anybody explain what this is? I drove a '76 Chevy Nova for about twenty years and never heard of such a thing, but then, it was an older car.
–Viva, the engine-illiterate
20 years ago manufacturers started putting in a bunch of electronic junk in their vehicles, I think it’s all to reduce emissions and increase milage.
I bet that O2 sensor also tripped your Check Engine light; happened to us a while back.
It is a small probe located in your exhaust system. It senses the amount of oxygen in your exhaust and reports it to the computer, which then uses the information to adjust your air-fuel mixture ratio.
They are usually easy and inexpensive to replace.
Wanna know what tripped the Check Engine light on my 2001 Toyota Echo? You’ll never guess. Give up?
The gas cap wasn’t on tight enough.
Viva, the oxygen sensor or Lambda probe is a little sensor that looks kind of like a spark plug. Some cars have one, some more. They are located in the exhaust just past the turbocharger but almost always before the catalytic convertor. Some are a big pain to get to, but most good auto parts stores can loan you the special socket you need to replace them. A replacement usually costs less than 50 bucks and you just disconnect a wire, unscrew the old one, screw the new one in. Unscrewing the old one isn’t easy, since it’s been rusting away in it’s place for quite a few years now, but often a little gentle heat (like letting the engine warm up for a half hour) will help persuade it. Of course, that’s when you’re most likely to burn yourself, so be careful.
As often as not, the “oxygen sensor” alarm is an artifact. Disconnect your battery overnight (which resets your car’s computer) and see if it goes away. You’ll have to reset all your radio stations, but it’s worth a try.
b.
lol… elshatan, actually that was the first thing I guessed. My '95 Talon did the same thing.
Likewise my '99 Subaru Forester. Even worse, it warns you of this possibility on the gas cap itself. :o
It didn’t say a thing about this in the manual, on the gas cap, or anything! So, of course, I freak out cause it had like 3000 miles and go scurrying into the shop. The mechanic guy walks over, looks at me, goes, “It’s probably the gas cap.” “The what?” “Yea, tighten the gas cap”. It was.
Why not have a gas cap light, rather than Check Engine, which can be anything from loose gas cap to impending explosion?
“The gas cap wasn’t on tight enough.”
Yep, we actually talked about that here once.
I had no idea this was such a, err, feature? My mechanic said something about it being for when the fuel tank starts leaking and pressure drops, or something.
The fuel cap is actually part of the emissions system now. Fuel tanks have to recover a lot of that gasoline vapor to keep it from venting to the atmosphere.
You know, I’m pretty much a lefty, but I remember when cars ran without all this complicated environmental crap and they ran just fine.
Thank you, Billy Rubin, Joey G, and Jeff Olsen . I had no idea what the durned thing was until you explained it.
I am still without wheels, since the dorks with the parts sent the wrong ones to my engine guys. :rolleyes:
(There is also some sort of connector problem involved here.)