Chevy S10 Oil drip and "Ding" sound

I recently bought a 2002 Chevy S-10 Xtreme. I test drove it and checked it over and even talked to the mechanic who serviced it at the dealership. I know the guy and he said it checked out really good. Well the other day I noticed an oil drip like maybe 2 in. diameter. A few days before the oil drip I start hearing this "ding" sound. The sound really reminds me of someone taking a rock and throwing it at a piece of steel or possibly it sounds like a spring going "boing" if that makes sense. I've heard this sound when the truck is running and when it is NOT running. I looked under the truck and the drip seems to becoming from where the transmission is bolted to the engine case. Anybody have a clues about this, especially the ding? I take it to the dealer Monday, do I need to get my wallet ready? Thanks.

Drip is common and could be rear main in rear of motor (have to pull trans to get to), gasket on the remote oil cooler lines up under the filter, line crimps leaking, valve cover leak - check the PCV first or replace with Delco and make sure oil level is not too high or filter clogging.
Ding I would guess exhaust heat shield probably on cat so after its hot crawl under and find the place.

Check your heatshield on your cat for tightness.

Hey thanks guys, my father and I are going to jack it up and check on the things you mentioned. Hopefully it will be an easy fix and I can save some money. *%$# dealership has a labor rate of $80.00 an hour and I'm an employee there but yet no discount. :banghead: I really hope it is not the main seal that is leaking. I suppose that would cost quite a bit to fix eh? Well thanks again.

Also check the flywheel itn't hitting the starter wheel.

This often happenes when the starter is not restracting fully after the vehicle is started.

Well I took her in to the dealer today. They couldn't pinpoint the leak. They thought it was a bad gasket on the oil plug. So they tightened that up and wiped off the excess oil and said keep an eye on it and see what it does. I drove around for a bit and looked to see if it was dripping and sure enough a drip was forming on one of the bolts where the transmission is bolted to the engine case. The oil plug was dry as a thistle so it's definitely not that. I seriously hope it's not the rear main seal but I have a bad feeling it is. And to make matters worse my car is an As-is no warranty. So the repair would come out of my pocket unless I could talk them into going half and half. Also told the mechanic about the ding noise. He checked the heat shield and said it was nice and tight. The sound has to be something that is heating up and then cooling down but I can't pinpoint it and it didn't make the sound for the mechanic so he wasn't sure what it would be without hearing it. Just out of curiosity how much does it cost to get a rear main seal replaced?

It isn't as much as you think.

$400-500 tops.

See, this is why I would never buy an 'Xtreme' model car or a used sportbike. I image the punk-kid original owners full-throttle launching on a cold engine all the time and generally knocking the crap out of it.
That said, a normal engine will make occasional ding noises as it cools down. It does kind of sound a little like the dinging of detonation or piston slap as the engine is running. Are we talking about a constant dinging that matches engine speed? The easiest thing to try is a high octane gas. If the ping goes away, you have your answer.
If the original owner was a punkass kid who burned up the piston rings flooring it cold all the time and causing piston knock, I'm sorry to hear that.

Hello again, I only hear the ding sound after the truck is shut off and it's cool down. I rarely hear it when the car is running. My father and I had it jacked up tonight looking at it and it made the ding noise again. It really sounds like it's coming from the gas tank. (which is plastic by the way, had no idea) Could it be that the tank isn't vented right or something and it's building up pressure? There was also a metal shield that was loose aroud the tank we tightened that up a bit, couldn't hurt anything. The truck has had 3 different owners and I can't tell you if some punk ran the sh*t out of it but it's possible. The previous owner is stationed in Iraq and it has been in storage for 6 months.

The oil drip is definitely not coming from the drain plug. We tightened the bolts where the transmission is bolted on to the engine and when we did that we noticed a couple drips of oil come out from between the engine and the transmission. So we think it's the rear main seal. THEN we checked the oil level for the fun of it and it's reading WAYYY over what it should be. So my next question...is there some kind of overflow that would be causing this drip?

my rear main seal is leaking on my s10 too, i dont want to have to change it out since u got to lift the engine up and remove the tranny so i just put some high milege oil in it with the seal max shit,it slows the leak down but doesnt stop it, i just have a big peice of cardboard on the garage floor so the oil dripps onto that, and as far as the ding sound, i do get the same thing after i drive for awhile and the truck is hot i go to park it and when im heading inside the house i hear the ding, i never really cared for what it was and this has been going on for years with the truck so it doesnt concern me at all

an oil level way over could be caused by a leaking fuel injector allowing raw fuel to leak down past the piston rings and contaminating the oil while the engine is off. do an oil change now and monitor the oil level. also watch for white smoke when starting and hard start conditions like flooding.

as for the oil leak, a little oil goes a long way in staining the driveway. it might be cheaper in the long run to add oil as needed rather than fixing the rear seal. you can try oil additatives that stop leaks or treat the seals but i've never had good luck with them. i read somewere that GM spent over 16 million trying to stop the rear seal leaks with no real results.

I don't believe it is a leaking fuel injector. I think it was just simply filled with too much oil. If that is the case is there an overflow hole or tube or something?? :uhoh:

I don't believe it is a leaking fuel injector. I think it was just simply filled with too much oil. If that is the case is there an overflow hole or tube or something?? :uhoh:

The ding noise is the exhaust system cooling and pinging when it is cooling back down.