autoxer

Just bought one of these:

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/mas53351.html

Its $42 plus shipping.

I used it to pinpoint an oil leak I had. It is a kit with flourescent dye for all the fluids (oil/coolant/air con), 50 watt ultraviolet light and special eyewear.

I just added the dye to my engine oil and went for a drive. Came back, put the car on stands and got under the car with the UV light. The leak was pretty bad, so I had glowing flourescent oil in several places (the air flow under the 3rd gen blows it all over the place). It was still easy to tell where the leak was coming from because the glow from the dye was much brighter in the area closest to the leak. I cleaned the area with brake cleaner and then started the car and was able to see EXACTLY where the leak was coming from. It was a tiny pin-hole in my front cover gasket about an inch up from the oil pan on the driver's side. I'm surprised it made as much of a mess as it did (the whole sub-frame and transmission under tray was covered in oil. Apparently the oil pump chain slings oil at the front cover gasket pretty hard... especially at higher rpms.

I was able to put a small dab of JB weld over the pin-hole and it stopped the leak. I cleaned all the oil up and it hasn't leaked a drop since. Without knowing exactly where the leak was, I'd have probably ended up replacing the whole front cover gasket, which is as much trouble as pulling the engine.

Just figured this might come in handy for some of you with finding oil and coolant leaks. I had to really look around to find an affordable kit. Most of them want $200 for the UV lamp alone.

Also, most Napa stores carry (or can order) additional vials of the flourescent dye for about five dollars.

- Dave Disney

boostgasm

that is not the oil slinging, that's right where the oil pump outlet mates to the front cover, so that could potentially be affecting your oil pressure...if it's not leaking out of the front cover/front iron externally, now it could be releasing pressure internally, i'd pull the engine and reseal the front cover the right way

what are your oil pressure readings at idle, 3k, and redline?

autoxer

Nah, my oil pressure is perfect. I'll keep an eye on it though, just in case.

The oil pump outlet is inside the the front cover, though the front cover gasket does seal it (it also has an o-ring).

See the 3rd pic down on this link to see what I mean, the center of the pic is the oil port you spoke of:

http://www.mazdatrix.com/faq/oring.htm

That part of the gasket/o-ring can be completely blown out and you'd never have an external leak. You would, as you mentioned, have low oil pressure though. I had a GSL-SE with that problem several years ago.

Thanks for the heads up though! I'm glad that's not the problem [wipes brow]

autoxer

Oh, another clue was that the leak was the worst when I jacked up the rear of the car (pushing more oil to the front of the engine) and even worse when I held the rpms at 7k. The oil pressure maxes out several thousand rpm before 7k because of the oil pressure relief valve and it didn't leak nearly as badly when holding it at that rpm where I had the same oil pressure that I did at 7k. Thats what made me think it was probably being slung by the op chain.

I would never have believed that much oil could be slung by the chain, but a friend of mine had a front cover gasket fail at the very top of the front cover... where there is no "standing" oil or any pressurized oil pathways anywhere near. It was a huge leak (you could watch it drip on the ground while parked) and the only thing getting oil up there had to be getting slung from the oil pump chain.

jeremyb

hmmm I have an oil leak around my tranny/rear engine area... I guess it's time for that dye stuff. So Napa stores carry that stuff? Cause there's a Napa store about 10 minutes from me. I don't wanna order it if I don't have to.

Jeremy

autoxer

Napa carries the dye, but you still need a strong ultraviolet light and a pair of the special (yellow tinted) saftey glasses that make the dye really stand out. The dye is cheap, but the UV light is pricey. The kit I posted is the cheapest I found by far and it works great. Autozone and Advance carry some really small "pen" style UV lights and the glasses, but the really small pen lights don't throw enough light out to work very well.