Oil leak (should I spend money to have mechanic find it?)

[DaveA]

I called another shop - this one a reputable local shop with some good online reviews. They too said it would cost money for an estimate to research the oil leak. I can try a few more places but it seems the estimate is going to cost me money. I have no problem with this but even the second shop said it could potentially be a few hours depending on the leak. My concern is spending $100-$200 for an estimate and then potentially another $1000 for the repair. I suppose it could be cheaper but isn't the main oil seal around $1000 to fix? Then I still need to timing belt + assembly done, winter tires, rear shocks. I can just see this costing me a few thousand dollars.

I get that some of this stuff is general maintenance. Yet we are still looking at a car that has a blue book of $2500-$3000. Here I am spending another $2000 on it. Who knows when the tranny or something else major goes. I know it's always a roll of the dice with high mileage vehicles. Just venting.

[avguy]

Guess I haven't been able to convince you the great probability is a valve cover gasket leak, and possibly a slow oil pan gasket weep as well. IMO, you shouldn't be asking them to diagnose an unknown oil leak. Instead, ask how much to check specifically for a valve cover gasket leak, and replace the gasket if a leak is found. Checking for a VCG leak is literally a 5 minute job - remove the engine cover, and then the plugs. If oil is found in the plug wells, the gasket has an active leak. They shouldn't charge more than $300 for this entire job, and hopefully it's closer to $200. If that's taken care of, along with the oil pan bolts snugged up, I believe it's HIGHLY likely the oil leakage will be over.

[DaveA]

My regular mechanic said the valve cover gasket has a leak but that there's a more significant leak elsewhere. Perhaps it is the oil pan gasket as you mentioned. What's the labor involved with that generally? Thanks!

[avguy]

The cost for replacing the oil pan gasket would likely be quite a bit more than the valve cover gasket. That gasket is RTV, and there's also more prep time spent getting stuff out of the way.

I've had very good results with oil pan gaskets on multiple older vehicles by just snugging up the pan bolts (re-torquing back to spec). Professional mechanics generally won't recommend that approach because there will almost always be a slight weep/dampness remaining after re-tightening. However, this very slight weep is not an active leak (no oil spots on the ground), and will cause no detectable oil loss. Millions of older vehicles have slightly weeping gaskets, run for years, and have no problems caused by this condition.

This is a VERY easy DIY, but if you can't do it yourself, here's what you might consider trying. Ask your mechanic if he would be willing to re-torque the pan bolts to spec. Assure him your not expecting the leak to completely stop, and perhaps he would be willing to do it, for a small extra charge. You also want to make sure he cleans the block and pan, so that you will be able to determine if any active leak remains after all of this work is finished.

[DaveA]

Thanks guys. I have it at my shop today for the timing belt/water bump/etc. I asked him to re-torque the pan bolts; he won't have an issue doing that.

Very torn on dumping more money into it on the leak or trying to get through the winter with the oil leak. Right now it looks like I will be able to drive my Camaro though a good chunk of December before snow hits. It looks like I may just have January and February where I'll be relying solely on the Aveo.

[avguy]

.... Very torn on dumping more money into it on the leak or trying to get through the winter with the oil leak. ...

There's one other thing you need to consider. If this is indeed the likely valve cover gasket leak, the oil is also leaking into the plug wells. This oil in the wells will eventually rot out the plug wires and cause bad ignition (i.e. misfire). Yes, you can replace the plug wires, but the new ones will also get trashed eventually. Money down the drain, and more aggravation.