Oil leaking.

[aguitarmn]

Hello. I have an 08 Aveo and I discovered it is leaking oil while I was changing the Alternator. My question is. Are there any typical culprits for oil leakage for these 1.6 Aveo's. I tore the valve cover off and the gasket looks like it might be the culprit on the driver side front of the head. After removing it, it looks like whoever owned this before used RTV on it in a few spots and shouldn't have. But the oil is all over the place. I am replacing that tomorrow. I was wondering if there any other gaskets that could be leaking other than the valve cover. The car only has 74k miles and is in relatively good shape.

Thanks.

[avguy]

Valve cover gasket leaks happen like clockwork on our Aveos. I'd be surprised if yours had already been changed in the past, given that mileage. RTV is applied at the factory in transition locations. So if that's where you're seeing the RTV, that's another clue it's the factory gasket. You should do the same on yours as well - just a dab will do it.

The oil pan gasket is the other very common place for leaks. I've had very good success just snugging up the pan bolts to 90 INCH lbs, using a criss cross pattern for tightening. Also use a criss cross pattern on the VCG, tightening in multiple passes, working from the middle out to both sides evenly.

[aguitarmn]

I did re-snug the oil pan bolts. I have to wait til tomorrow to go to get a new valve cover gasket. Is it common for the crankshaft position sensor o-rings to go bad on these? I can't tell if maybe some is leaking out of that. I had a Neon that the o-ring on the sensor needed changed periodically. If I can easily get the o-ring I'll just change it too. Thanks!

[avguy]

.... Is it common for the crankshaft position sensor o-rings to go bad on these?...

I cannot recall a leak at that o-ring ever being posted here, and have never seen it anywhere else either.