| By :
Ben Mester
Oil leaks are about the most common car ailment known to man. The reason why is because you can have so many different types of oil leaks, from oil pan leaks, oil filter leaks, oil sender leaks, leaky seals, and more. There's not much worse than driving home everyday and seeing a big and unsightly oil stain in the middle of your driveway or garage floor. Oil leaks just happen naturally over time as the car ages. But isn't there anything you can do? Well it really depends on the kind of oil leak. Some fixes are literally as easy as screwing in a new part, while others might require a whole new oil pan. Here are a few different kinds of leaks and how to fix them. 1. Leaks in Your Valve Cover. Most every car with higher mileage will have a leak like this, but often it doesn't really count as a leak. More like a slow seeping that won't ever cause a puddle of oil to form somewhere. This particular type of leaks isn't all that dangerous, unless it gets worse. Since the leak is coming from around the engine, you should notice a slight burnt oil fume since the oil is contacting hot metal. You can sometimes repair these seeps and leaks by carefully tightening your bolts, but you shouldn't do it yourself. Ask your mechanic the next time you have an oil change to take a look. 2. Drain Plug Leak. This is a semi-common type of oil leak. Your drain plug is a little bolt that holds the oil in the oil pan, that the mechanic unscrews to let the old oil flow out while doing an oil change. The plug has to be screwed in again when the new oil is put in. Sometimes the threads get stripped or crossed and it starts to leak. If this screw is leaky, you can buy a new one and have it replaced the next time you get your oil changed. 3. Oil Sender Leaks. This happens when the oil sender, which does what it's name sounds like, gets damaged somehow. It's rare but I've seen it happen. In a friend's car, one of the belts snapped and smacked the oil sender. You better believe he now has a pretty substantial oil leak. This problem can only really be fixed by replacing the whole oil sender. 4. Oil Filter Leaks. If the oil filter isn't tight enough, or the surface wasn't cleaned on both sides before the oil filter was screwed in, it can leak. The oil filter is a round cylinder about 6 inches long and 4 inches in diameter. Google a picture online if you're not familiar with what it looks like. If you've got yourself an oil leak, you can go to your car and check to see if the filter is leaky. 5. Seal Leaks. This kind of leak is difficult to fix fully. Only oil stop leak will really be effective in fixing this kind of leak. Engine oil stop leak was created in order to treat the rubber rings and seals that are in an engine and elsewhere by softening the rubber and causing it to plump and expand. It's not a gummy solution that just gets in there and goops everything up. If you've got yourself a seal leak, you'll probably start noticing that oil is burning in your combustion and smoke is coming out of your tail pipe. Engine oil stop leak should do its job within the first hundred miles of driving after adding it. You'll definitely want to give this substance a try if you're living in a state that has emissions laws and smog tests.
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