2 days ago my wee cedia started dropping oil from the front left side of the engine. Anyone got any ideas on what has failed in the engine for this to start so suddenly.! The car has 90k on the clock so hoping it's nothing major.
mugenb20b,
May 28, 5:38am
Can you post a picture!
jacinta.r,
May 28, 5:43am
of what. the car, the oil leak or the engine!
have located leak. will post pics as i have no idea about cars :-)
mugenb20b,
May 28, 5:48am
^^^^^^^^^^ both.
mugenb20b,
May 28, 6:07am
Sorry to ask, but can you also take another picture from the top, where the fanbelts are! I'm just trying to see if it's an oil leak from the engine or power steering.
motorboy2011,
May 28, 6:13am
I vote power steering
jacinta.r,
May 28, 6:14am
cant get another pic. it's just started puring with rain.
mugenb20b,
May 28, 6:22am
Bugger. Would've been nice to see the fanbelt area (between the engine and chassis on the driver's side). But, anyway, I would say that you have an oil leak from a power steering component somewhere, as it looks like the P/S reservoir is low on oil (from what I can see). If that's the case, it shouldn't be a major problem to remedy, as long as you don't run the system dry. In the meantime, keep an eye on all your under bonnet fluid levels and see your mechanic in the morning.
jacinta.r,
May 28, 6:26am
righto. went back out and it think motor might be right. the PS tank thing is under minimum and the stuff dripping is red. is it ok to drive tonight as we have to go out bout 25km return and then 12 km to work in the morning!
a.woodrow,
May 28, 6:30am
Should be fine, just don't turn the wheel!
But seriously, I wouldn't recommend driving it till you top up the fluid as you may cause damage ($$$) to the power steering pump. Looks like it may need a new or rebuilt steering rack
mugenb20b,
May 28, 6:32am
Ah, if it's red, it's definitely P/S. I can't give you advice on how far you can drive as I don't know how severe the leak is. But, what you can do, is, go to your nearest petrol station (hopefully it's close by) and buy some automatic transmission fluid (it's the same stuff that's used in P/S and should be available in 1 litre containers) and top up the reservoir.
mugenb20b,
May 28, 6:33am
It's probably just a hose, I doubt a rack would leak at 90k.
jacinta.r,
May 28, 6:35am
:-( thanks folks. really really appreicate the answers and suggestion. *sigh* more blimmin money on the car :-(
mugenb20b,
May 28, 6:37am
No worries, and yeah, bloody cars.it's never ending sometimes. And thanks for posting pics.
a.woodrow,
May 28, 6:42am
Maybe not this car. replaced dozens of holden commodore racks under warranty though, some had less than 50k on them
phillip.weston,
May 28, 6:51am
check trans fluid too as that's red - it could be a cracked end casing of the transmission possibly.
fordcrzy,
May 28, 7:28am
its a built in feature to stop them from BURNING all the oil like they usually do.
jacinta.r,
Jun 5, 11:03am
Problem was the left steering rack. managed to get it into a mechanics and they are fixing it this week. Not impressed at all as it had gone for a warrant 2 weeks earlier and passed with no issues, yet the mechanic has also found the right engine mount is cracked so fixing that as well. appreciate all the advice you all gave :-)
phillip.weston,
Jun 5, 12:01pm
a warrant is only an inspection of the condition of the car on that day - if the leak was not present on the day of the inspection then there would have been nothing picked up on. Given how large that leak is, it would be fairly obvious and would have been failed if the leak were present at the time, which looks to be highly unlikely.
Unfortunately this comes down to vehicle maintenance, and it's a shame that this unscheduled maintenance happened however it is now 11 years old, granted it does have low kms.
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