Help, Oil Leak

[PPeters]

Unhhhh, this don't look good. Park the truck last night after work, head down the driveway to get the mail, notice a TRAIL of OIL in the fresh snow Pop the hood and pull the stick, JUST THE BALL TIP HAS OIL ON IT Start looking around, and notice some oil on top of the oil filter, like it was leaking around the seal, plus oil on the body of the filter. However, not really any amount of oil on the side of the block (either passenger/ filter side or drivers side). Jump underneath, no oil coming from the front cover, but from the back of the pan rearward everything is SOAKED. Transmission, front of transfer case, front prop shaft. Mostly on the passenger side. Now, I watch my gauges when driving and I had normal readings for oil pressure and temps coming home. Checked the transmission level, normal, red, doesn/t look like any engine oil in it. Cleared a hole in the barn, started and moved the truck inside. Had plenty of oil pressure (read normal). Drained the oil and pulled the filter. When removing the filter I noticed it was not really tight. I have done 34 oil changes on this truck since I got it, and never had this happen before. I prefill the filters when installing, and turn them 3/4 after the seal makes contact (by hand). Tell me I just had a filter get loose and nothing more serious. Rear seal? While everything was draining I cleaned all the oil soaked surfaces with brake clean and let it dry. I am doing an oil change and will take the truck for a test run this weekend to see if any leaks surface. What concerns me is that if the leak was from the filter body seal, I would have expected the passenger side of the block to be coated with oil as well, but it appears to start between the pan and the inspection plate on the transmission adapter. Any and all input is welcome.



Pat

 

[JLEONARD]

I prefill the filters when installing, and turn them 3/4 after the seal makes contact (by hand)

I always use a filter wrench when tightening diesel filters... . about 1/2 turn with the wrench after the 3/4 by hand.



Could be that the filter was just loose... . I've seen that happen.

Jay

 

[farmall]

I would put my money on a loose filter. I had that happen last summer. It backed it's self off enough that oil was covering it and puring on the ground. You couldn't even see the filter. I tightend it back up and that filter stayed tight??? Go figure!



Bill

 

[PPeters]

Thanks for the response guys, and I hope you're right. Crawled around under it today to see if I had any leaks after the oil change, clean so far. Still kinda freaked about it, though. Will take it for a spin tomorrow am to see about leaks under pressure.



Pat

 

[EZGZ]

I am guessing just a bad filter seal. (mass production)



I think the prevailing airflow forced it down and along the transmission instead of going all over. Was prolly just seeping.

Good Luck!

 

[bmoeller]

Originally posted by JLEONARD

I always use a filter wrench when tightening diesel filters... . about 1/2 turn with the wrench after the 3/4 by hand.

I wouldn't recommend doing that. Good way to damage the filter. Even with my big hands in that small of an area, I can still get my filters plenty tight by hand.

 

[VicR]

How strange! I had the identical thing happen on my 97 this weekend. Saw some drips on the ground and when I started looking for the leak I noticed the small puddle in the top of the filter. It was very loose.



Did an oil change and marked a line on the pump housing with white-out. Then I marked a corresponding ling on the filter body with a black marker. Now at a glance I can tell if the filter is shifting again. Its on my list of things to check every fill up now.



Glad we both caught it before something bad happened.



-Vic

 

[PPeters]

Well fella's, it's the rear seal:{ She leaks from the weep hole in the inspection cover just behind the pan. I did a search of the archives after confirming the problem, and saw one mention of high pressure causing a leak past the oil filter seal. The odd thing about this is the day it happened, when leaving that morning I heard a "bang" when I started down the drive. Kinda like a rock striking something under the truck, but nothing but hard pack snow in the drive. I even got out and looked for it. Is it possible that what I heard was the seal popping due to a pressure spike? It was cold that morning (about 8*F). Truck got a 3-4 minute warmup before moving. Oh well, gotta go get more parts... .



Pat