My sister-in-law started smelling burning oil in her '98 Subaru last week. She took it in to a local mechanic–a “friend of a friend”–who put it up on the lift and showed her oil all over the bottom of the car. He told her she needed new gaskets, etc. and while they were at it they may as well replace the water pump since the car has over 100,000 miles on it. $800 later, she’s satisfied with the diagnosis and the work that was done. However, I’m skeptical. This is the same mechanic who recently charged my employer $64 for an oil change on our company vehicle, and on another occasion failed to replace the oil in the same vehicle after an oil change. Wouldn’t leaky gaskets result in burning oil on the engine block–not underneath the car? I’m wondering if they (purposely or not) didn’t tighten the filter or the oil pan plug last time my sister-in-law took her car to the same guy for an oil change, resulting in the oil underneath, and made up the whole thing about the gaskets. What does anybody think who knows more about this than I do? Cheers
The oil will be all over the bottom of the car if its leaking because of gravity and air flow blowing it back as she drives. If you are at all skeptical just take it to the Subaru dealer and have them verify the gasket was changed. It is easy to do this. I do know that Subaru’s are known for oil leaks in the 90’s vintage so it isn’t that unhear of but if you suspect faul play have it checked out.
Did the oil leak just start after the change?
She is satisfied,your skeptical. Oil leaks are a hard area to satisfy a customer in. Stopping them 100% is a very hard task,since he has done a good job in this difficult area,just go with the facts.