I have an appointment next week at the dealer to have this checked out. My 2015 Grand Caravan with just over 30,000 miles, has been leaking a bit. Enough to make a mark on any spot I park in for longer than an hour or so. I placed a white poster board under the front end to see if I could identify where and what it may be. After about 6 hours, I checked and it seemed to have several drops of what certainly looked like engine oil. A dark golden. The leak seems to be located about 3 or 4 inches inside the front driver’s side tire.
This has been going on for just under a month. I keep checking fluid levels, and the engine oil doesn’t seem to be diminishing at all, though it is a bit tough to tell exactly because it is clean and hard to see on the dipstick for this auto novice. An attempt to crawl under didn’t produce any real info, seems there is a bit of the oil anywhere in the area when dabbed with a white rag.
Again I am a novice, so I am just asking what I should expect when the van is checked out. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
The car has had all needed maintenance at the correct intervals, though the last couple changes have admittedly been at a quickie place.
My father, a former mechanic till retirement told me in theory there is no way to be leaking oil and not have at least some lowering of the oil level, obviously.
Could this just be seeping so slowly to not notice a level difference? I know it is next to impossible to get a diagnosis here without a real inspection, but based on the location of the drips and the color of the liquid, any guesses would be great.
I am 6,000 miles away from the end of the warranty, and we have a long road trip planned in a few weeks.
The location of the drip can be misleading, as fluids sometimes run along various components from the original leak location before dripping. I suspect they’ll figure it out pretty easily once it’s on the lift and they can get a good look at it.
If possible, try to get this sorted out quickly. Ideally you want to drive the car around town for a week or more after any repairs to make they were done properly.
So it turns out the oil cooler was leaking. No charge repair under the warranty. They had the part in stock so it should be fixed by the end of today. Good news, I suppose.
My thinking on reading the OP at first, that the leak was probably a leaking valve cover, a little unusual, but not an completely unknown thing at 30K. But it was the oil cooler instead? Oh my, I guess that’s what happens when I do my own thinking … lol .
I expect all is taken care of and you are home free. It certainly makes sense that an oil cooler could leak some oil drips to the pavement if a gasket went south. If the oil cooler has coolant going to it also, which I presume it does, suggest to keep an eye on both coolant and oil levels for a while, and check for any symptoms of the oil and coolant mixing. Cottage cheese like stuff under the oil filler cap, oil film looking stuff at the top of the radiator, etc. Probably nothing to worry about, but a failure of the oil cooler possibly could cause that problem too, so good idea to monitor the situation.