1994 Century losing alot of oil

toni1595 · #1 09-14-2004, 03:37 PM

Like the header says, my daughter has a 1994 Buick Century. It is a 3.(something) liter, 6 cyl. engine and she claims to have lost 3 quarts of oil in 2 weeks. Of course, she is away at college and I have no way of actually verifying this. I did get her to check underneath after stopping to see if there were any puddles under it and she is seeing that, so it isn't burning it. My question is where would someone check to see where all this oil would be coming from? In other words, are there known trouble spots to look for? I am not that familiar with this particular engine and am not quite sure what to look at first. I hope it is not a major repair like a rear main or something because I was heading down this weekend to see if I could stop the hemoraging a little, and I am not prepared for something like that. SHe is also getting a nuisance check engine light, but , I found some info. on this site to check that out. Anyone out there have any ideas? Thanx.

GTP Dad · #2 09-14-2004, 06:48 PM

The only way to identify where it is coming from is to look at the engine. Of course you already know that. If you are having trouble finding the leak take a clean piece of cardboard and place it under the car. Run it for a while and then see where the general location of the leak is. Once you identify the general location then you can find the leak. I would check the oil filter to make sure that it is tight. If loose it will leak oil quite readily. Also on most GM cars the oil pressure sending unit is in the same area. These tend to go bad and can leak a lot of oil. If she does not smell oil burning I doubt the oil is coming from the valve covers but you could check them anyway. The front seal could be leaking along with the rear main seal. Always a good source of leaks on these engines. I don't know what else to tell you at this point other than Good Luck!

toni1595 · #3 09-15-2004, 07:39 PM

Hey thanks GTP......... Yes, I guess it will warrant a good going over for sure. I didn't know but maybe there might be some quirky thing to watch out for. I know some, heck maybe all of them, have there specific trouble spots and maybe this was one of Buick's. So far this particular car has been pretty good, even with the close to 150K miles on it. We got it fairly reasonable and we figured she might get thru college and a little more with it and then she could pick up her own wheels.

toni1595 · #4 09-19-2004, 08:30 PM

O.K. I got a look at it today and it is coming out from under the throttle body on the drivers side. It looks like it might be the gasket between the intake manifold and the engine block. There is a small round cover nearby that looks a little suspect , but, I really can't get a good look at it where it is congested there with other components. Has anyone seen an oil leak on this particular engine near this area??? If so, what will I need to do a repair?? Oh and by the way it definitely is a 3.1 liter engine. Thanx, Toni.

GTP Dad · #5 09-20-2004, 05:50 PM

That round cover should be where the distributer used to sit on the older model engines. You should be able to remove this and there should be an O ring that forms a seal. On some of the 3.1's there is a distributer hold down that holds this in place you should be able to remove this and then remove the cover. Once removed you can replace the O ring and return it to it's proper location. This should seal the leak. I don't know where you can get the part other than a dealer. It is also possible that the manifold gasket is also leaking in this spot. It will take several hours to replace the gasket if you decide to replace the entire gasket. The only way you will know for sure is to take the throttle body off, to see if you can determine where the leak is coming from. Good Luck!

toni1595 · #6 10-03-2004, 07:38 PM

O.K. I had a chance to get into this oil leak today but I couldn't seem to get enough room to access it to where I could remove the o-ring and replace it. Outside of removing the throttle body and intake manifold I don't see any way to get to it. Is there any miracle cures as to how to get at this darn thing?????? I'm just about at my wits end on this one. Please help if you know of a way. Thanx.

GTP Dad · #7 10-04-2004, 05:56 AM

I don't know of any magic way of getting to it other than removing the throttle body and manifold, although removing the throttle body may be enough to get to it. The throttle body comes of with just a couple of bolts, you shouldn't need to disconnect much else other than the air inlet tube and move it out of the way. You may need to go to the dealer and get a new cover, then punch or drill a hole in the existing one and pull it out then replace it with a new one. Sorry I can't offer more help.

toni1595 · #8 10-04-2004, 07:15 PM

Well as it turns out we had the guy we originally bought the car from do the repair today...... I had seen him a couple of days ago at the auto parts store as I was getting ready to purchase the intake manifold and throttle body gaskets and he claimed that he has never had to remove either one on that particular repair. Well I had the wife call him this A.M. and he said he could fit it in between jobs, I said go ahead. Well $40 later and its sitting in my driveway right now all done. I don't know how in the heck he got that thing out and replaced that o ring but he must have some tried and true method. Anyway its behind me now and thats all that matters. Thanks GTP Dad for the input, maybe I can be of some assistance to you someday.

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