Oil Leak "not from oil filter adapter"

[smokn87stang]

My car is cursed. It's a 1996 base model mark viii with 117k miles on it. I bought it in Sept '07 from a neighbor that babied it over 10 years with no oil leaks for a month until I had oil changed. Had a quick lube station change oil (lazy me) with castrol 5w-30 synthetic blend and it started leaking a day or 2 afterwards. Got underneath and found oil seeping a bit from oil filter adapter, and also oil drops hanging from the last 2 bolts in oil pan closest to the transmission bell housing(arrhh!):soapbox: . Bought the filter adapter gasket and replaced it (not easy) at the same time I replaced the front 02 sensors (insanely hard). Since then, the engine block in that area is dry as a bone . Unfortunately I still get the oil drops hanging from the 2 rear pan bolts. Retorqued pan bolts that I could reach myself, and changed pcv valve (just in case is bad). I may be deluting myself here, but before I blame the rear main seal, any suggestions you could offer before I start contemplating on dropping the tranny is appreciated. Sorry about the novel. Happy new year by the way!
Phil

 

[Roadboss]

Generally speaking these engines don't have rear main seal issues. Are you sure what you are experiencing is not just a case of oil that gets spilled onto the cross member during a filter change migrating back to the location you have described. You might also pull the inspecrion plug on the bell housing and see if it's wet in there from maybe a leaky pump seal. Or maybe double check your power steeing lines etc.

 

[smokn87stang]

Thanks for your response, I appreciate it very much. I can defenitely say that I've done some wiping as best as I could since I changed the oil filter adapter gasket over a month ago. I do have a small p/s leakage going on, but it's coming from the p/s pump itself and I'm wondering if the p/s has a peep hole under the pump housing. It looks like every time I wipe it clean, next day it looks wet underneath the p/s housing. The p/s fluid does migrate down the high pressure hose that runs parallel to the back of the radiator, but I just can't see that oil migrating all the way back to the rear pan bolts.
On the other hand, last week I pulled the bell housing plug to see if it was wet, but couldn't see engine oil in there. The torque converter looked pretty clean to me. A flash light looking between the tranny and the engine gap shows me oil/dirt buid up over the years, but it doesn't look wet at all. The only thing I can think of is buying some of that fluorecent oil and run the car for a while and see how it goes, but I guess one thing I could do is take it to the dealer, have them diagnose it, and if it's something I can do, then I could take care of it myself.

 

[LSCGODDESS98]

sure about that..what about on the 98's gen 2 ? mine was replaced @ or around 70k.now im up to 139 n got that leak again....and that i beleive it's tranny fluid again...stang..what color is the oil you see again for your issue?