Oil is the diet of your engine to remain healthy and work efficiently. Oil leakage is something that you must not ignore. It may require a trained mechanic to figure out the cause of oil leakage. The ultimate requirement is not to put it off as it can cause serious damage to your engine.
Leaking oil from your car is an environmental hazard, and it causes ugly stains when you are driving. The worst of all is that oil leaks can cause a fire in your engine compartment, resulting in engine failure. So, fixing the oil leak needs to be your number one priority.
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Common Signs Of Oil Leaks
To check for engine oil leaks, first keep an eye on the oil level of your car. Look at the dipstick, if you observe the level has dropped before expected, it means you are losing oil. When you are driving, check if blue smoke is coming out from the tailpipe. If you see it, it means that oil could be leaking into the engine.
After the drive, sniff for the smell of burning oil. If you find anything like this, it means that oil leaks onto the engine’s hot components. If you find oil stains under the engine compartment when the car has been parked overnight, the oil is leaking.
What Causes Engine Oil Leaks?
Oil leaks are frustrating as they come to more than one place of a car. Your trip to the mechanic is guaranteed if your car is leaking oil. Oil leakage starts with minor leaks, and if ignored, they develop into a major threat to a car. Most of the time, oil leaks due to degraded oil seals or bad connections. To exactly know the exact reason for oil leakage, here are some of the most common causes explained:
Oil filter
Oil filters can be aligned loose or improper. Some cars have additional parts in the filtration system that can leak, as well. Whenever you go to the mechanic, make sure that the filter is changed whenever you change the oil and look for proper fitting to avoid leakage.
Oil drain plug
The drain plug is at the base of the oil pan, accessible from the car’s underside. Misaligned threads or a loose oil drain plug can be a cause for your car’s oil leakage. But it is easy to spot as there would be fresh oil around the plug and on the side from where it drops.
Oil filler cap
The oil filler cap covers where you put oil into the engine. If your filler cap is missing, broken, or loose, then the engine’s pressure can cause the oil to spill out while the car is running.
Valve Gasket
The gasket is the most common cause of oil leaks. Particularly cars that have a high number of miles and are used frequently or in older cars. A gasket is a seal that joins the two head metal parts of the engine, i.e., the engine block and the oil pan; with a buildup of sludge over time, the pressure increases, which causes failures in the seal of the gaskets, resulting in oil leakage.
Sometimes, the damage to the oil pan on the underside of your car can cause minor and severe leaks as well. This can occur when running the car over a lumber road and by hitting an animal while driving at high speed. Any of these incidents can dent the oil pan compromising the seal or drain plug, which will instantly cause oil leakage from your car.