Porous Oil Pan

Element · 10-13-2008, 10:05 AM

My '06 Sedan EX MT with 22k has been leaking just a little bit of oil for awhile now. Only about a cup between oil changes. Not enough to leave a puddle on the garage floor but enough to make me take notice during an oil change. At first I thought it was from sloppy oil changes so for the last two I was extra cautious not to get oil on anything and I wiped everything down after. I watched it and after a few weeks more oil started to appear. It wasn't dropping much on the dipstick, maybe 1/8" every 3 months, so I wasn't in too much of a hurry diagnosing this.
After doing some searches here I found the TSB 06-020. Oil leaks from sealing bolts and power steering pump elbow, but my car doesn't fall within the VIN ranges listed. Even so, I thought it could still be that so I brought it to the dealer. They took it for a day and diagnosed it as a porous oil pan.
Anyone ever have this happen? To me it seems like they're just trying to get out of the 7 hour job listed in the TSB. Can I ask to see the old pan when they're done? I've only got 9 months until the warranty is up so I'm certainly going to watch for leaks after they change the pan out.

volvo9 · 10-13-2008, 11:11 AM

That's a wierd one but I guess it's possible. They had issues with casting problems on the R18 engine blocks cracking and leaking coolant, so this could be plausible.

Is there any way to get under there and take some pictures? If the car is under warranty I would not be too concearned about it. They're not going to try and purposely skip over the real problem unless they're an unethical dealer.

Element · 10-13-2008, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by volvo9

That's a wierd one but I guess it's possible. They had issues with casting problems on the R18 engine blocks cracking and leaking coolant, so this could be plausible.

Is there any way to get under there and take some pictures? If the car is under warranty I would not be too concearned about it. They're not going to try and purposely skip over the real problem unless they're an unethical dealer.

I should've taken pictures, but I had it in Friday for the diagnosis and today it's back in for the repair, with a busy weekend I just couldn't get around to it. My bad.

I skipped the unethical dealer on this one. Learned my lesson last time. That was a disaster. I went to the dealer with a better service reputation locally. Not where I purchased the Civic but they didn't seem to care. I explained what happened with the other dealer and they understood.

JoeFromPA · 10-13-2008, 02:56 PM

I'm going with BS on the porous oil pan theory. If that were true, you'd be seeing an oil stain that wouldn't wipe off.

FYI - And feel free to correct me if I'm somehow wrong here - it's damn near impossible for a DIYer to prevent oil spillage due to the filter location. There's no way to control the flow out of the oil filter port hole.

Actually...just saw you have an EX. I don't know the filter location on those, so excuse me if I'm wrong there. The SI is a bear.

Ok, so I'm re-reading your post. You said you didn't find a puddle on your garage floor but you "saw oil appear". Well, where did it appear? On the floor? On the oil pan (that would fit in with a poorly cast pan)?

If it's just dissapearing from your dipstick, I'd say consumption

Joe

Element · 10-13-2008, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeFromPA

I'm going with BS on the porous oil pan theory. If that were true, you'd be seeing an oil stain that wouldn't wipe off.

FYI - And feel free to correct me if I'm somehow wrong here - it's damn near impossible for a DIYer to prevent oil spillage due to the filter location. There's no way to control the flow out of the oil filter port hole.

Actually...just saw you have an EX. I don't know the filter location on those, so excuse me if I'm wrong there. The SI is a bear.

Ok, so I'm re-reading your post. You said you didn't find a puddle on your garage floor but you "saw oil appear". Well, where did it appear? On the floor? On the oil pan (that would fit in with a poorly cast pan)?

If it's just dissapearing from your dipstick, I'd say consumption

Joe

It's very easy to change the filter w/o spillage (different story on the Element). And I knew I never really made a mess with any oil changes so "sloppy oil change" theory was a bust from the beginning.
What I meant by appear: Oil was visible on the pan, running down the filter, and other areas underneath. Pictures would be worth a thousand words here. I even thought I hadn't put the filter on correct.
Now that I think back I could never completely wipe the pan clean. It was as you said " an oil stain that wouldn't wipe off" not actually liquid oil but a stain.
Either way I get it back tomorrow with a new pan. They had to keep it an extra day. Apparently they forgot to order some o-rings/gaskets they needed. Gave me a POS Caliber to drive.

Element · 10-18-2008, 07:17 PM

***UPDATE***
They told me the pan was thrown in the trash. So I couldn't see exactly where the problem was. I climbed under today. They definitely replaced the pan. There wasn't any oil leak visible. I'll continue to monitor it.

After the repair, I drove home and went to check the oil... the tech didn't put the dipstick in all the way. Unbelievable! Just another thing to add to the list of strange happenings with this car.

deltatechx · 10-19-2008, 02:14 PM

loosing only a cup of oil in between oil changes is really good for these cars, they consume a lot of oil through the PCV system and normal ring leakage. I would go through a quart of oil or more in between oil changes until I switched to Amsoil.

10-13-2008, 10:05 AM	#1 (permalink)
Element Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Saratoga Springs, NY Posts: 19 Jeff iTrader: 0 / 0%	Porous Oil Pan My '06 Sedan EX MT with 22k has been leaking just a little bit of oil for awhile now. Only about a cup between oil changes. Not enough to leave a puddle on the garage floor but enough to make me take notice during an oil change. At first I thought it was from sloppy oil changes so for the last two I was extra cautious not to get oil on anything and I wiped everything down after. I watched it and after a few weeks more oil started to appear. It wasn't dropping much on the dipstick, maybe 1/8" every 3 months, so I wasn't in too much of a hurry diagnosing this. After doing some searches here I found the TSB 06-020. Oil leaks from sealing bolts and power steering pump elbow, but my car doesn't fall within the VIN ranges listed. Even so, I thought it could still be that so I brought it to the dealer. They took it for a day and diagnosed it as a porous oil pan. Anyone ever have this happen? To me it seems like they're just trying to get out of the 7 hour job listed in the TSB. Can I ask to see the old pan when they're done? I've only got 9 months until the warranty is up so I'm certainly going to watch for leaks after they change the pan out.

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10-13-2008, 11:11 AM	#2 (permalink)
volvo9 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: North Attleboro, MA Age: 26 Posts: 2,517 Andrew iTrader: 0 / 0%	That's a wierd one but I guess it's possible. They had issues with casting problems on the R18 engine blocks cracking and leaking coolant, so this could be plausible. Is there any way to get under there and take some pictures? If the car is under warranty I would not be too concearned about it. They're not going to try and purposely skip over the real problem unless they're an unethical dealer.

10-13-2008, 02:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
JoeFromPA Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Age: 26 Posts: 468 iTrader: 0 / 0%	I'm going with BS on the porous oil pan theory. If that were true, you'd be seeing an oil stain that wouldn't wipe off. FYI - And feel free to correct me if I'm somehow wrong here - it's damn near impossible for a DIYer to prevent oil spillage due to the filter location. There's no way to control the flow out of the oil filter port hole. Actually...just saw you have an EX. I don't know the filter location on those, so excuse me if I'm wrong there. The SI is a bear. Ok, so I'm re-reading your post. You said you didn't find a puddle on your garage floor but you "saw oil appear". Well, where did it appear? On the floor? On the oil pan (that would fit in with a poorly cast pan)? If it's just dissapearing from your dipstick, I'd say consumption Joe

10-18-2008, 07:17 PM	#6 (permalink)
Element Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Saratoga Springs, NY Posts: 19 Jeff iTrader: 0 / 0%	*UPDATE* They told me the pan was thrown in the trash. So I couldn't see exactly where the problem was. I climbed under today. They definitely replaced the pan. There wasn't any oil leak visible. I'll continue to monitor it. After the repair, I drove home and went to check the oil... the tech didn't put the dipstick in all the way. Unbelievable! Just another thing to add to the list of strange happenings with this car.

10-19-2008, 02:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
deltatechx Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Age: 23 Posts: 576 iTrader: 1 / 100%	loosing only a cup of oil in between oil changes is really good for these cars, they consume a lot of oil through the PCV system and normal ring leakage. I would go through a quart of oil or more in between oil changes until I switched to Amsoil.