Okay, I'm new, and before posting, I did search for hours before asking. I admit I haven't read every thread returned by the search results, but this is driving me mad, I checked out all those links the moderators posted up as stickys to no avail. So here's my problem.

Car has 60K miles on it. I noticed massive amounts of a 'fluid' underneath my car today. I live in an apartment complex, so I didn't know whether it was there previously or not, but now I know for sure.

I am new to the fd but not to mechanical work in general. I needed to figure out the source of this leak. I can't jack up the car right now, but the leak seems to be originating from the front of the engine near the driver's side. The car doesn't smoke, the engine doesn't smoke. I checked the oil level of the engine and it's near the F mark. So I stuck my palm in the puddle and noticed it's a light golden color. It is in fact some type of oil (doesn't evaporate but it's not as oily as oil ). I took out the dipstick to find that the oil on the dipstick is much darker (not black, but dark brown) and smelled much different from the oil on my palm. I checked the other fluids (brake and power steering) and they are topped off to max. So I'm puzzled. This is a big puddle. Just sitting overnight, it gathered enough to flow all the way past the rear bumper (my car isn't on any incline). I've been sticking my hands under all kinds of hoses to see if there is a leak, but I couldn't get to the hoses deeper in the engine bay. Also, there is a small leak originating from almost the same part of the engine, but this one is underneath the turbo (the one closer to the front of the car). Can't locate the origin of that leak either, and the leak is much less than the previous one so I can't figure out what kind of fluid it is because it soaks into the asphalt.

I haven't pulled the intake to see if there was oil in it. The car runs fine, but that much of leak can't possibly be healthy.

Any ideas?

 

you sure its not coolant?

 

Okay now this is really starting to aggravate me. Now I really don't know what the weird flowy substance could be. The car has a big spot under it that's bigger than the car and it wasn't there last night! Before starting the car, I checked all the fluids, everything is topped off to the max. Brake fluid, power steering fluid, transmission fluid, engine oil, coolant and even windshield wiper fluid. What in the world am I missing here? Is there another mystery fluid I don't know about? The spot made by the car yesterday has completely dried up and left an ugly brown residue on the asphalt. I mean, you would think if I lost that much fluid, it would show SOMEWHERE. I know it's coming from my car... argh, I guess I'm going to have to go out and buy some jackstands and a jack... this is driving me mad!

 

Put a piece of cardboard under it for a few hours. Go outside and check to see if there are any drops every hour or so. It will help you pinpoint the originating location.

 

Thanks DaedelGT, I dunno why I didn't think of that earlier. I'll probably have more info on this later on tonight.