i have had a oil leak from the screw in my head the mechanic said manifold screw was rounded off when they did my head in march. Will any of those liquid additives work on that? i have no sign that my head is blown.
Sounds more like a medical problem!!! You want “Surgery Talk”, not “Car Talk”. Just kidding.
Are you talking about the intake or exhaust manifold? Oil additives will not touch those areas.
How much oil is leaking? A quart every 1000 miles? Every 3000? Every 100? Does the car run otherwise?
I do not know much but i know it is not the exhaust the guy told me it is the screw for the head. And i am putting in 3 quarts every day. Is there ANYTHING i can do to fix it other than a head job can not afford that right now.
At 3 quarts per day it is unlikely that anything but a proper repair will do anything at all.
That said, “the screw for the head” and “manifold screw” don’t refer to anything that I can put my finger on. Get your mechanic to be very specific about what the heck he was talking about. Get a very specific part name.
I would say that, “rounded off” screw or not if this problem is head related it probably should have been fixed when the head was done. Of course, that is also hard to say since no one is going to know what you’re talking about.
Do not put anything in the engine other than the recommended engine oil. If you report back with what is leaking that could change - but unlikely.
Through the years on these Neons a lot of head gaskets have been misdiagnosed as leaking oil when in fact the cam sensor is the culprit. And yes at 3 quarts a day, you’re not gonna fix it with any kind of additive.
I took it to another mechanic today he put it on the lift and showed it to me the screw that bolts the head to the engine is where it is coming from. He said that is where the exhaust meets the engine and oil should not be coming from there. He said the only way to be sure i would have to pull the engine down to the head and see what is what.I cant afford a head job right now until i do my taxes so my other question is should i fix it up or get another car? If so what used car would you recommend?
Ok - you gotta get over this thing you have in your head (pun intended) about there being “a screw” that bolts the head to the engine.
The cylinder head is held to the engine block by a whole bunch of head bolts. You can’t see those when the car is on a lift. You can’t see them with the car not on a lift. In order to see them you’d need to take off the valve cover - and you don’t do that with the car on a lift. Please call the mechanic and ask for the actual name of a part.
The place where the exhaust “meets the engine” will be where the exhaust leaves the engine and this is the exhaust manifold. If there is oil coming from the area of the exhaust manifold that is bad. You should also be seeing and smelling a lot of smoke when the engine is hot. If there is a lot of oil on and around the exhaust manifold it may not be safe to drive the car since it can get hit enough to cause a fire. Is there smoke when the car is hot?
Can you see oil leaking if you just open the hood? Or could you stick your head up underneath and look up to see what the mechanic showed you? Do you own a digital camera? You see where this is going…?
This could be something as simple as an oil pressure sending unit that is leaking or a valve cover gasket that got misinstalled. The valve cover gasket can leak an awful lot of oil on these engines, and be deceptive enough to make people think it’s leaking from somewhere else. If this has been happening since the shop had the head off of it in March, this should have been warrantied a long time ago.
Okay, lets just answer your overall question:
Stop leak additives WILL NOT solve your issue, even temporarily.
Your mechanic has obviously told you how much it will cost to properly fix the issue, and you can not afford it until half way into February.
You should just go about getting a new car, or find some other form of transportation between now and then. Maybe a family member or a friend can loan you a car for a couple of months?
Then after you get your tax return, you can then fix your car properly, and then either keep driving it, or sell it, and get something else.
I’m sorry you’re in a financial bind right now, but you can’t afford to keep dumping out oil onto the street as you drive, and you can’t afford to repair the issue properly right now.
BC.
is this a prank posting?
no this is not a prank. I will try and get a picture of the area today sorry if i sound like a dummy but this is my first car and i am just trying to learn to learn.I have already given up on the additives i know that will not help. I did not see the bolts [not screw my b] them selfs but the place where it is. I am just trying not to get taken for a ride when a woman walks into a garage some people see dollar sign. I changed the oil pressure sending unit and my leak did not start until late July. Also changed the cam sensor in early July. Oil is dripping on the oil switch.
Do try to get a picture? If you changed the oil sending unit & cam sensor then you’d probably know if it was either one of those things leaking, right? Did you double check those areas?
Its sounding more and more - just b/c of the thing about the rounding off of a bolt/screw that this leak is on the mechanic that did the head. This is a little 4 cylinder car. Its probably really easy to pull off the valve cover, and if you did the oil sending unit then you can do this too. Do try to get a picture and more specificity about the issue. But you can also pull the valve cover and look at the head bolts. If any of them are rounded off then the guy who did the head really has to just make it right.
Don’t jump to any conclusions yet though b/c based on what you’ve said this is wild guessing on my part.
Just FYI, a rounded off bolt on a manifold will not cause an oil leak. The exhaust and intake manifolds seal air/exhaust, not oil.