Car repair question...

[r3vsandip]

My sister & brother-in-law have a '98 Honda Accord which is leaking oil. He told me, "the engine needs to be resealed." What does this really mean?? Head-gasket issue? I guess there's no way to find out what's actually causing the leak without having someone take apart the engine

Comments

[chaircrusher]

learn to love your junkyard man ...

Oil can only leak from a limited number of places on an engine -- it can be an oil pan gasket gone bad, or some sort of seal that's marginal. What they do at the mechanic's is to put it up on the left, put your crankcase under pressure (e.g. attaching an air pump to the oil fill hole in the head cover) and look for the drips.

Oil generally does not leak at the head gasket. Head gaskets tend to blow when the engine is overheated, and you get white smoke from burning antifreeze. Unfortunately if it's hot enough to blow a gasket, the head also can warp which is even spendier.

So a little oil drip is usually not a big deal. Worth fixing, for environmental reasons if nothing else.

Getting the headlights working, the bumper put on, the most egregious missing panels replaced could cost you $1K, which is a bargain price for a 98 Accord. Accords, when properly cared for, can go 200k miles without major work...

[denshi]

Leaking oil into/out of what exactly? That's where to start.

[r3vsandip]

Leaking out of the engine area onto the garage floor. ;)

Very scientific, i know...

[druid]

"I do know it's not a "bad" leak- add some oil once in a while, and the engine runs fine. ;)"

Sounds perfect for an ArtCar...

[evilangel_lib]

My brother & my dad do a lot of home car repairs. I would be more than happy to put you in touch with Shale to discuss the problems you're having. It might be something he could do for free or really cheap for you, too.

Or maybe we could work a trade out... they will need someone to marry them in the next year or two. ;)

On another note...

[evilangel_lib]

I have to continually battle the urge to turn any car I own into an art car. lawl

[evilangel_lib]

My brother said he can take a look at it on Friday. He said it can mean a LOT of different things, depending on where the oil is actually coming from. He said you may possibly be able to just add a sealant to the oil, which is cheap & easy enough that you could do yourself. (Though don't do this until after someone's taken a look at it. lol)

[evilangel_lib]

Scratch that, he said you could try adding the sealant first on your own & see if that fixes the issue.

/bad translation correction

hehe

[aaru]

If it was your head gasket, you would have other problems... like lack of compression in cylinders. Pulling a head is kinda expensive, especially on Hondas because you have to use their custom tools to do it; takes a special wrench thingy.

Oil pan gasket isn't as bad.