Oil everywhere! What now?

[HAYATO]

Hey,

After I bought my NSX and finished the road trip, I got the oil changed. Used synthetic 10/30c - and oil pan started leaking. Replaced the oil pan gasket. Went back to reg oil. Still smoking and dripping around center of sway bar. So, then I had the following done/replaced:

Both v-tec o-rings
F&R cylinder head cam end cover rings,valve cover gasket
Cam end plugs

Found that the rear main seal had a slight leak also, but it would cost me about 1500 to replace, and i figure that I would wait to take care of that when I get an aftermarket clutch next yr.

At that point, I still had some smoke coming out, and only just a few little drops a few inches ahead of the sway bar. I figured the rear seal would do this for now, so I decided to check it periodically.

Today, I drove the car for the first time this week across town. But all this time I have been easy on her to prevent the rear main seal from getting worse. However, when I got back, the smoke was really bad.

I waited a little while and went back out to the garage to check out the underside...oil was all over the place! It appeared to be dripping from everwhere except the oil filter. Even the exhaust cover near the back bumper was soaked and dripping??? It's the damnedest thing!

Have to wait until monday to call back the shop, but in the meantime, i'm irritated and sick to my stomach over this. Anyone have any thoughts of how this has happened? Didn't have a single leak until I got the oil changed to begin with!

Panicky,
Chris

 

[nsxotic911]

This is every NSX' owner not waiting to throw away their motor so they can build a new one... nightmare.

1st) <BREATHE> Like my guidance councelor told me, it's not the end of the world that I couldn't get a date for homecoming, and didn't get accepted to any of the 10 colleges I applied to (just kidding..:tongue: ) and the same concept applies here, breathe...

2nd) People on the board here are going biatch-style Internet-slap you as to why you were driving a car that was leaking oil in any shape or form....
which I'm assuming you have already done so to all those friendly NSXPRIME Nazi's: Lay off him guys

3rd) Stop diagnosing it yourself.
Don't crank that car for not even one click untill the car is diagnosed by the MOST experienced person you can come in contact with. That woudl be not you, and not me. I'm a newbie mechanic breaking more stuff than I fix.. and this is one of my nightmares I hope I don't hit, but at some point (a few for me so far..), which it seems you're at, you have to throw in the towel.
NOTE: As it is not clear, this is assuming that you performed your oil change and are doing the diagnostics. If another party performed the oil change, then 99/1 the blame is on them, and that's a sucky situation to be in.

4th) Wait for diagnoisis. It could be something simple, it could be not.
Some of the standard questions on the board here are going to be..
-Did you do any tests on the engine prior? Compression, leakdown test etc..? Miles?
-Did you notice oil leak before? (No..) Did you check the oil level to see if you're loosing any oil? (did you..) Did the power seem suspect during the trip at all?
-Any overheating, at all,ever?
-"When" did the oil pan start leaking? Right after you filled it, before driving it, after driving it for x... miles .. how much was it leaking?
-Why did you so easily replace the oil pan gasket without doing some deeper investigation.. ? eg What made you so sure it was the oil pan gasket..? Did you follow the very specific procedure for replacing the oil pan gasket in the service manual?

 

[HAYATO]

All work has been diagnosed/done by a supposedly reputable local mechanic here in Memphis so far. The odd thing is that there was absolutely no leakage prior to the fresh oil change that I got after driving for 8-9 hrs.

Oil pan gasket was replaced a day or so after the oil change, because that is when I noticed some dripping from there.

Got 75K on her. Runs strong and smooth. No overheating or jumpy idle. Also had a tune up while the gaskets were being replaced.

Local NSX mechanic says the car is in good condition, except for the rear main seal. It seems like that seal was "pinched" or not installed properly when the previous owner replaced the clutch around 50K.

Again, I didn't perform the work, I had a local Honda/Acura mechanic handle everything so far. It just seems strange that I had all this work done and leak seems to be getting worse.

 

[nsxotic911]

Interesting. At this point, get a second opinion...

Based solely on whaty ou said, I wouldn't take my car to the origional guys that did the oil chnage and any of the following work.

Surely, if the oil was leaking passed the pan, they would (or should ) have brought it to your attention.

What about CEL codes?

 

[sptrader]

Did they overfill the oil by any chance ?

 

[Synthesis]

Did they overfill the oil by any chance ?

i'd kill them.
this is why i now do as much as i can myself. i don't trust anybody with my car (minus a few renowned nsx guys.... )

 

[goldNSX]

i'd kill them.
this is why i now do as much as i can myself. i don't trust anybody with my car (minus a few renowned nsx guys.... )

DITO!

No oil leakages before the oil change? This reminds me of a very old story about synthetic oil eating up any seal. Before you beat me: NO, I don't think that's the case.

 

[HAYATO]

In a few minutes, im going back into garage to take a look underneath. I was thinking that maybe the oil that i see near the back bumper is what was blown off from the leaky rear main area? (I drove about 60 miles total yesterday, ~95% on interstate) Well, i'm going to check the oil level again too.

Overfill wouldn't suprise me. The head mechanic has had experience with NSX's, owning several of them through the years. In fact he's looking for another one now. He has personally been doing all the work on my car, EXCEPT maybe the oil change - perhaps that was tasked out to one of the assistants in the shop? Hmmm...

Wish me luck. I will try to see whats going on.

 

[HAYATO]

My friend and I just got through checking things out under the car. It helps to have a second pair of eyes.

And it looks like it is just some spray coming from the rear seal. It was mostly sprayed on the bottom of cat, baffle, muffler. Kind of like someone sneezed a few times under there. Didn't look as bad in the bright daylight as when I was trying to examine the underside last night. There was no oil runnoff from anywhere that we could tell. Oil level is good.

When I have taken the car just around downtown for an errand or two, I don't get much oil drip at all or the smoke. Seems like it's the highway driving that makes this mess.

I just hate that my clutch has only ~15K on it. I might as well get a nice aftermarket clutch and make the labor expense of dropping the transmission worthwhile.

 

[Synthesis]

so you're pretty convinced it's the main seal? that sucks man.... but what can you do?
is the clutch slipping at all? if it's not so bad, you might be able to blast it with brake cleaner to get all the oil off and ride it out. (i duno, just a thought)

anywho, good luck with it. let us know how it goes.

 

[HAYATO]

The underside is actually quite clean. I just cleaned off some of the spray and it looks good. No sludge or build-up anywhere. I drove it about 15 min after cleaning the spray, and checked it out again - oil level too. This time no spray....just a few drops from main seal and a tiny bit of smoke after I parked.

Unfortunately, the clutch is in tip-top shape haha, so I am just going to let things be and keep it under close supervision until I start upgrading things. I will only be driving it once a week for just a few more weeks, then it's going to be stored until spring, so I have time to plot out my next course of action.

In the spring, I will do the 90K service, new clutch(single plate comptech if I can get it) and possibly the non-compliance and toe - all at the same time. If I do not tweak the suspension, I might do some minor cometic stuff.

 

[exSeSSive]

If you are not familiar with what's going on mechanically and are stressing about this, the *BEST THING* you can do is take the car to BarnMan in Nashville. He'll diagnose and fix the problem and you'll have the piece of mind that it's fixed, it's done *right*, and it's a fair price.

If you don't know the name, you'll find many posts with his name here on Prime. PM me if you need his contact info.

- David