Oil leaking inside the car! WTF?
 

Hi! I have a small oil leak under the dash on top of the gas pedal. The oil leak smells like gear oil, but could i be leaking gear oil? I did change the tranny fluid a few months ago. ANd i over filled alot because only the front of the car was raised. Could the gear oil be force up the speedo cable? Well this is the case how would i fix it. I will dump the extra gear oil but would that stop the leak? Did i mess up some seal in the speedo drive cable unit? Thank you!

could be your brake booster

:eek: HOw! were? what? How could it be the brake booster?? Please explain! OH man i hope not i don't want to rebuild that too.............. Thanks for your thought thou........

In theory, oil can be forced up the speedometer cable. But I can't say that I have ever heard of that happening...BTW, don't overfill the transmission. It will cause it to leak, and may blow out the seals.

I doubt it is the brake booster, since the booster does not hold brake fluid. Might be the master cylinder though. That should be easy to spot...

Tranny oil has a very distinctive smell, so you should be able to tell if that's what it is. Brake fluid will remove paint.

Might it be engine oil? The o-rings under the filter base will leak, and could (with the assistance of wind) spray oil onto the grommits on that side of the firewall.

I had a clutch master cylinder do that once.

clutch master cyl i'd say

I had oil get in the cabin down by the footwell due to the oil cooler line getting a tear in it. then again I also had no oil pressure.

It is prob oil feeding through your speedo cable. Take the cable off at the tranny and see if fluid drains from the cable.

James

sounds like master cylinder is leaking. mine did that before I rebuilted it.

dont forget the oil pressure guage, if im not mestakin it has a line. like i said i could be wrong but ive seen it happen befor.

Also a slim chance it is dirty coolant leaking from the thru-firewall coolant circuit into the heater.

bad times bro

oil pressure gauge doesn't have a line. It gets an electical signal from a sending unit in the engine. No oil lines actually pass through the fire wall to the gauge.

My money is on the clutch cyl.....my 85 did that..are you leaking clutch fluid by any chance?...

I am having the same exact problem, actually. The fluid comes down and leaks right above the gas pedal - I noticed it when all my pants had these stains on them by the ankle. I looked up in there and it looks like it's running down the steering column. I asked a mechanic what he thought it could be, and his answer was that it was basically a mystery fluid. He suggested that perhaps the previous owner had oiled something in the dash, but it has leaked too much for it to have been a one-time thing.

I had my clutch replaced this summer, but it had been doing this before I had it done, and it is still leaking now. The fluid is a light color - almost has a yellow tint to it, and feels like oil. I have still to figure out what the heck is going on with it.

Light yellow oily fluid?

Ever poke with a bottle of brake fluid?

The clutch cylinder uses brake fluid as it's actuating fluid. A leak there will happily run down the actuator rod into the footwell area.

Basically, look for what's losing fluid. It should be pretty evident.

-=Russ=-

Sounds like brake fluid leak.

smell the fluid! Smell a bottle of brake fluid. IF it doesn't smell any thing like it than is tranny fluid. MY spedo cable is leaking and it runs down the steering column right above my gas pedal. Also if your brake fluld leak that much you would notice a low brake fluld level. IF your speedo cable is leaking you would have to replace two seals in the speedo gear drive unit. HOpe this helps

Man, soon people are gonna be like

"There are animal like noises coming from my seat!"
or
"My storage bin behind my seat is full of gasoline!"


Heh.. please let us know what you find out

You should look at all your fluids, and check their levels. I find it really hard to believe that it's the speedo cable leaking tranny fluid, since it should be sealed off. More than likely it is one of the two Hydraulic systems.

It could be some of that JDM Instrument cluster Sys link Fluid, or that Turn Signal Cam Hydraulic Reducer Gearbox leaking, lmao.

Seriously though, likely it is Hydaulic fluid.. and likely the clutch master ,as those can leak a good amount before you know its low from the pedal.

Also , many would be surprised at what a clog in the transmission can translate to. I Have seen dipsticks overflowing and radiator end tanks explode...but thats mostly Chryslers to that extreme.

I really wished that it wasn't my speedo cable leaking. But you can really smell that gear oil stuff. OH the speedo cable was leaking only after long period of high speed driving (80 -90 +). There are two seals in the speedo gear drive unit that get harden after a while. But like i said again you can't mistake the smell of gear oil with any thing else. I honestly hope is not gear oil that is leaking in your car.

hehe my speedo gear was pushing oil all the way up through the cable... you can replace the seal, but i broke the gear trying to get the dowel pin out.... just buy a "new" one from a parts yard with a warranty.