I have a 3.1L 98' Lumina that has a oil leak that I was wondering if anyone had some insight on. It looks like the leak is coming from the left side of the engine by the bottom of where the serpentine belt runs. I only get a few drips of oil in the driveway but the serpentine belt, the 'gears' it runs on and everything in that area has black sludgy oil on it. Any ideas on where the oil leak is? I've tried cleaning up the oil to see where the leak is but I can't seem to spot it. Looking thru the Haynes manual (not very informitive) it looks like there is a oil seal behind the bottom 'gear' that the serpentine belt runs on. Is this something common and/or easy to fix? I usually have more spare time than spare money so I try to do the easy to moderate stuff myself.
front crank seal,yes somewhat common on high milage cars, wash off front of engine with degreaser and make sure, have easeir time telling from uderneath car, should also replace oil saoked belt, fairly easy repair.
My 95 has the same symptoms. When I replaced the head gasket I never did pinpoint where the oil was coming from, but there plenty of oily gunge on the left hand side. Perhaps 3-4 drips per night, but nothing I lose sleep over, so I just thought I'd top it up until it got worse. I tried degreasing it when we stripped the engine, but excusing my inexperience, it seemed like there was just too much oil to clean off. It just seemed like I could clean forever and there was still tons more.
3.1L 98 Lumina oil leak
