Oil On The Driveway

[bkmelton]

We've owned four Ram pickups in the past eight years (We obviously have some brand loyalty), this is our first diesel. My question... . is it normal for a new Cummins diesel to leak fluids (bought it new in March)? After parking in the driveway overnight (after being driven), there's about a 4. 5in dia. spot on the cement. It appears to originate from the bell housing, has been obviously blowing back onto the auto trans and subsequent cross bracing. My other Dodge pickups (1500 series) never left a drop on our driveway from engine or transmission.

 

[ScottLewis]

Seems excessive to me. My '06 doesn't appearto leak at all but it only has 1000 miles so far. My '98 drips some from the vent tube but even at 97K, doesn't leak that much. You ought to have the dealer check it out, under warranty of course.



Dan

 

[rbattelle]

I agree, that's a little excessive leak rate. Some leakage might be normal on a new engine as seals seat themselves and engine assembly lube drains off, but your leak rate seems excessive. Check to see if it's the blowby tube from the crankcase breather, which runs down along the driver-side engine block.



-Ryan

 

[DPKetchum]

No leakage is normal on a Cummins. Look at the crancase case breather tube. It will make oil appear as if coming from bellhousing. Is the 4. 5 inch area from where its been park on a few times?

 

[wlowe]

Clean up the oil on the engine then watch the oil pan bolts. Mine had a slow leak on one of the rear bolts (ran down bell housing), re-torqueing eliminated 99 percent of it. Fairly common on the older engines.

 

[B.G. Smith]

We've owned four Ram pickups in the past eight years (We obviously have some brand loyalty), this is our first diesel. My question... . is it normal for a new Cummins diesel to leak fluids (bought it new in March)? After parking in the driveway overnight (after being driven), there's about a 4. 5in dia. spot on the cement. It appears to originate from the bell housing, has been obviously blowing back onto the auto trans and subsequent cross bracing. My other Dodge pickups (1500 series) never left a drop on our driveway from engine or transmission.

Check the level of the engine oil, the 3rd generation does have a history of injector leakage problems with diesel going into crankcase. bg

 

[KParsons]

leak

my 06 is leaking a little on the bell housing too. 3k on the truck . i will check the oil pan bolts ,and see what happens. kp

 

[DPKetchum]

Bolts have sealer on them. I'd look at the BLOW BY TUBE FIRST before I'd tweek anything on the oil pan as it might START a leak. . As some blow by out of the tube is NORMAL.

 

[nickleinonen]

could also be slightly undertorqued rocker cover bolts... pop the plastic cover off and see if any of the main bolts [6 of them i believe] are loose. .

 

[macdaddy]

If oil is detected on one or more oil pan bolts, don't tighten them!!.



I ran into this on my 99,instead remove the drain pan bolt, generously clean the hole with brake cleaner, and apply some sealer of your choice and reinstall.



I over tightened a few on my 99 and ended up having to replace the entire drain pan gasket .



Apparently the gasket installed is a one time compression thing, where as you put it on once compress it and thats it (Thats what I was told ).



In any case I had a few leaks develop and by removing them (the bolts) and sealing them up as mentioned above it resealed every time.



Mac

 

[ScottLewis]

The original thread indicated he bought the truck new in March. If thats the case, I think he should get the dealer involved, under warranty, before doing anything more than the barest minimum.

Don't give them any cause to deny legitimate repair work and get the problem recorded now, before it becomes something more substantial. Pan replacement on my '98 ran up a pretty big bill. Fortunately, it was under warranty.



Dan

 

[bkmelton]

I work 12 hr. days and a bunch of them back to back, so this isn't exactly a "quick reply". Anyway, I pulled the dipstick out of couriousity Saturday evening (should've done it a month ago) and I,m just under the FILL line. I also have an appointment at a dealership per your suggestion (as well as my wife's... . since it's principally her vehicle). I thought about playing mechanic but I'm not really in the mood for it. I don't mind adding improvements but I shouldn't have to "fix" a 4 month old truck. Thanks for your concern.

We're a new TDR family and I'm impressed with the response to my minor problem.

Thanks bkmelton

 

[KBennett]

There is an O-ring on the back of the motor that the trans mates up to. I am not sure of the details but crobertson1 had a bad or missing one after he bought his that created a similar symptom. Maybe he can chime in.

 

[rashwor]

Any leak from anything other than the breather tube is not normal on a cummins. Look at it yourself then have a discussion with the dealer to get it fixed.

 

[jimnance]

I've owned six CTD's. Never had a leak on one until the '93 I recently purchased with 130K on the ODO. It leaks about one drop every other week. New truck? They need to fix it. My '05 has 30K and is dry as a bone.

 

[crobertson1]

There is an O-ring on the back of the motor that the trans mates up to. I am not sure of the details but crobertson1 had a bad or missing one after he bought his that created a similar symptom. Maybe he can chime in.

Copy that KBennett-

When I parked my brand new truck in the garage, within about a half an hour, I had a 3-4 inch "puddle" of oil under the truck. It had 90 miles on it! It looked like it was coming from the back of the block. I took it back to the dealer and they pulled the transmission and "found missing o-ring on trans adaptor housing-replaced o-ring". I think the part number was, if I remember correctly, 4797725. Actually, I got the number off the invoice. Once repaired, it was as good as new.

 

[KBennett]

Any news on what happened?

 

[bkmelton]

As I,ve mentioned before, this truck is primarily my wife's grocery getter. I rarely use it unless I,m out cutting wood. I made an appointment @ a dealership and they suspected a rear main seal. They called me @ home with the "good news / bad news" approach to the problem. It wasn't the main seal but a "seal between the transmission and engine", which is probably the O-ring in the thread by crobertson1. They needed to keep the truck a couple more days while the O-ring was overnighted from Los Angeles (never needed to do this repair before). In short, they fixed the problem and when I got it home it was still leaking oil. My wife then left for a scheduled trip and she said it left the usual spot of oil in our friend's driveway and also on ours when she came back (900 mile round trip). I have an appiontment with the dealership tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. I,m beginning to have reservations. I love this truck but maybe I should have kept my 05 gasser bkmelton





06 Megacab bone stock... . so far