When the oil level is full, we have oil on the floor daily.

If the oil level drops down some, the leaking abruptly stops.

What type of leak would behave this way? If it's the oil pan
wouldn't it still leak during operation and then drip when still?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

When you say full, define "full". Top of the dipstick?

I usually shoot for middle of the dipstick on an oil change. I always use 4 quarts of oil and an FC oil filter, that gets me right on the money.

Remember, the oil pan is not pressurized. The oil just sits in the pan, is sucked up by the oil pickup into the oil pump, and then it is eventually dumped back into the pan. The oil coming out in an oil pan leak is from driving around and the oil sloshing.

Dale

 

Put it up on some ramps, start it up ,crawl under car, and and start searching for a leak while engine is running. I had to do this on mine to find out for sure where it was coming from. I was almost sure it was a oil pan leak before doing this but i turned out to be a front cover leak. I had to search under running car for a good 20 to 25 minutes to absolutely find it.

 

Thanks.

Just degreased the oily areas. Now we'll keep an eye for where it starts back up.

FSM says fill to Full mark, but if Dale runs it half way, I feel better about that option.

 

Almost certainly an oil pan leak. I had the same problem. For a long time, I would run it about 3/4 of a quart low so it wouldn't leak very much. Getting the oil pan fixed took care of the problem. Now I keep it full, with no leaks.

 

It can be an oil pan leak. The full oil level in these engines is above the oil pan and rotor housing mating line. It can be very tricky sometimes to reseal old oil pans...

 

It could also be a leak for the oil level sensor in the driver side of the oil pan - especially since the leak stops after it goes below a certain level.

 

Exactly!! This is why the car leaks more when parked than it does the car is running. When running, the oil is circulating thru the engine, and there is less oil in the pan.