Honda Civic Oil Leak Mystery 

Thanks man! Good luck with the repair and stay warm!

Luis Flores i have a leak too does your Honda stop leaking?

Yeah this one took me a minute to figure out where it was coming from lol

I did the same thing:)

At 1st i thought it was just my valve cover gaskets which also where leaking switch that now i found the main problem....bout to get to work

🤞

+Gregory Claiborne did it help?

Gregory Claiborne hey!!!

I did an oil change and since then, the same issue arose for me. I wonder if that’s the issue too. I have a 2000 Civic LX with 175,000 miles. It drives like a champ, but the leak is getting bigger and I can’t pin why. I know it’s not the pan, I figured it may be the filter but never guessed this. I was going to put dye on my car and drive it, then see with UV where the leak was coming from. This helps a lot! thank you!

She's a sneaky one!

If its vtech check the Vtech seloniod it is rt behind vaulve cover next to distributor their is 2 gaskets their and also the O ring gos bad on distributor just ordered all them and this senor to screw it do em all at once lol

MrGracentruth - Yeah, I only used teflon tape because it seems like the old one had liquid teflon on the threads so I figured what the hell lol.

Must be the only non-metric part on the car. Kidding. 15/16 is very close to 24mm, but who has one of those?

Probably needs to be adjusted.

Did you figure out what it was?

Anything yet ?

That’s why the tape goes on the threads, not over the tip of the sensor lol. If it’s on the threads, it’s not going to be an issue.

Good warning for those that dont know that could happen. Anyways for anyone using teflon abd your worried about this, you can always start the teflon about 2 threads back so theres no chance of getting it inside oil. Ok bye

You probably have multiple leaks then, a single leak could cause scattered drops but the puddle should be fairly confined to 1 area unless the oil is running along the oil pan or something then dripping down. You won't know for sure until you get under it.

There’s a lot of possibilities, so you’d have to pressure wash that area of the engine or use brake clean to wash all the grime away, then run the engine and see if you can see fresh oil coming out anywhere. If not, you may have to jack up the car and get under it like I did. Some leaks can be sneaky.

The oil pressure shouldn't have anything to do with the timing except for maybe on VTEC engines which in assuming you don't have. Older cars like this shut down if you have low oil pressure, I took a turn in m '94 Cougar pretty hard 1 time and it stalled. Did you car start back up fine? And do you have an oil gauge? If you don't have a gauge on the dash you will need to plumb in a manual gauge or have a shop do it for you. If your oil pressure is actually low then odds are the pump is weak, the pickup tube is clogged or cracked or your engine is just worn out. I would start by trying to get any codes out of the car and make sure the issue is actually related to low oil pressure before jumping to any conclusions.

Yeah I’m not sure where the oil sensor is on the 2013, but I would do some research before handing out that kind of money.

@@TonyTheTruckGuy it appears to be above the oil filter. For that money, I would think that it was in the engine. I’m a bit angry about the charge, but I knew that dealerships do that kind of thing. They get people because they have them for the first three years or whatever warranty is and then, hopefully the vehicle is reliable for a while after that. Then people continue to go back because that is where they have always gone.

@@TonyTheTruckGuy Interesting follow up. Two years after being told that my Civic had an oil leak and not fixing it, it doesn't use any oil between the 5000 mile oil changes and has a little over 170,000 miles on it. No lights and not codes on. Maybe they saw something. Maybe they didn't.

@@alanhassall Send it! Lol

You’d have to get under it and get a look at it like I did. Otherwise the work you did could possibly be leaking

I would say if it has low compression the engine is probably bad at that point.

@@TonyTheTruckGuy it was , sold it

+Kimberly Vanvoltenburg You will need to diagnose where the leak is first. There's almost no oil leak that can't be fixed with the motor still in the vehicle.

Have you actually had the compression checked or are you just guessing?

not yet i need some one too look at it , from passed experiences im guessing at this point

It's not very hard to check, I highly recommend doing that before anything else.

+PkwyDr ok , I'll see what I can do on a low budget!

Can’t remember to be honest but a small crescent wrench should work if you don’t have the right size socket.

Gravity will always win so the oil may be coming from higher than you think. Like I said I replaced the pan gasket and replaced the oil filter trying to cure this issue but oil was definitely coming out the center of the sensor. Only way to tell for sure is to get under it and use a little mirror to look above the oil filter. Might be able to get a glimpse from the top side though.

@@TonyTheTruckGuy thanks for the info man but yeah I know for a fact it's around oil filter area because I've done same as you just from top down as in my (head gasket,vtec solenoid,cam seal,egr gasket,oil pan gasket) and yet still oil leaking but stopped everywhere else just got one more damn pesky leak and it's either one of the two a o ring behind the oil filter housing or a damn sensor just my only problem is I need to get it to a lift to find out

You don’t have to. The oil pan is below the filter and the sensor, so you’ll just get a few drips when removing those. Just make sure the car is not running 😂

It wouldn’t surprise me. I did my pan gasket and oil filter before figuring out it was the pressor sensor haha.

There's oil coming OUT OF the exhaust? Or is oil just dripping onto your exhaust manifold?

No oil is in exhaust, but i got that fixed just by doin a tune up

But it's still leaking oil on the ground? You'll have to brake clean or pressure wash the whole engine really well and then run it to try and pinpoint where the leak is from. You'll have to likely get the car up on a lift or jack it up/drive up on ramps to get under it. There's a lot of things it could be so this is the only real good method.

Yes

Link Pretty Ass - I wouldn't worry about that unless the oil is milky or something. You're checking the oil with the engine OFF, correct? When you shut the engine down, all the oil from the top end of the motor drains back down into the oil pan, which is where the dipstick generally goes in to so the "droplets" is probably just oil returning to the pan.

PkwyDr yes i let it sit overnight i check it in the morning but im confused because the oil deepstick its not giving me a correct measure of my oil the deepstick has oil drops all over the deepstick i added more oil to see if that would change but its still the same

Link Pretty Ass - I've noticed some dipsticks become too slippery so the oil doesn't want to stick to them so you don't get an accurate reading. I usually try flipping the dipstick 180 degrees in case there's marks on the other side of the stick. You could also pull the dipstick out and scribe a line on the full mark or use a punch or screw driver and a hammer to make a dimple on the stick. Then if there's oil in the mark/dimple, you know your oil level is at least that high.

hey PkwyDr quick update i got under my honda and i saw it had sop drops of oil then i got under my car and i saw that the oil pan had oil dropps dripping do you think i need a new oil pan gasket???

Link Pretty Ass - I would jack up the car and get under it to see where the highest leak is, gravity just makes it all come down the pan. If you can't find the exact leak, bring it to a decent shop for a diagnosis.

Haha what’s leaking on yours?

@@TonyTheTruckGuy I think it's the head gasket, but it could be more.

Ouch. Make sure the oil isn’t coming out of the valve cover gasket or the spark plug holes instead. I heard there’s issues with these where oil drips passed the valve cover gasket down into the spark plug bores.

@@TonyTheTruckGuy I had that replaced last February when the timing belt was changed again. I also had the O-ring for the distributor done so that wouldn't leak anymore. I'm not sure about the spark plug holes, but since the engine block is covered in oil, I'm guessing it must be the head gasket. But currently the majority of the oil that I can see coming out is on the drivers' side of the engine, which could mean the crankshaft seal is bad or the oil pan gasket might be leaking too.

@@BigKWS did you figure it out?

Technically it was broken. The oil was leaking out between the plastic moulding and the stud that the wire hooks on to. Nothing could really be done besides replace the switch or try to fake it with JB weld so I said screw it and replaced it.

😱😱 the oil filter housing? How did that happen?

@@TonyTheTruckGuy No, were you screw in the oil pressure sensor💀😢

@@jhlewis Oh boy. Thaaaaat isn’t good. Someone MIGHT be able to grind that housing off and weld a new threaded bung on for the sensor otherwise the engine block would need to be replaced unfortunately

Did you break while putting new one on or taking old one off?

@@jameshunt5316 yes it sucks

At which timestamp?

Did the leak stop after???

I have a civic ex same issue.. I changed all gaskets new top and bottom and still have a leak come from were you explained exactly

@@jacintogonzalez7146 Yes but I changed just the oil pressure sensor that’s what ended up actually fixing the leak.