Thread: Common oil leaks and fixes?

ok. I havent had that problem yet. At least that I know of. I check my oil regularly and no coolant in it or oil in the coolant.

I have to change the fluid and filter on the tranny, so while I am under there, I will change the oil pan gasket (hoping that it is that easy) and do a little clean up.

Does the LIM fail due to overheating, running your car hard or just happens after time?

Engine oil pan gasket is not a fun DIY project. You have to support the motor and transmission while dropping out the whole sub-frame/engine cradle.

The LIM gaskets go bad because they are made of pretty cheap plastic. GM knows of this problem with them cracked around the coolant channels, and they have since revised the design of them. The new replacements I would recommend getting would be new aluminum ones from GM as seen here:


They are even reusable about 2-3 times as well if you do it right each installment.

They don't really cause an oil leak, just a coolant leak. You know they are bad when you see coolant puddling around the base of your fuel injectors.

~F~

Originally Posted by hunter_alexander

ok. I havent had that problem yet. At least that I know of. I check my oil regularly and no coolant in it or oil in the coolant.

I have to change the fluid and filter on the tranny, so while I am under there, I will change the oil pan gasket (hoping that it is that easy) and do a little clean up.

Does the LIM fail due to overheating, running your car hard or just happens after time?

I didn't have any signs that my LIM gaskets were bad either. I just knew the problems that others had with them. So when I was changing all the other gaskets, I did these as well. Ended up they were bad. The plastic had broken down, and if they weren't letting coolant into the passages, it would have soon. So it was a good thing I was proactive and changed them before I saw any signs. Getting coolant in your oil is not something you want to mess with. Even just a little bit of water in your oil can spin your bearings and require you to replace the entire engine.

As farnsworth said, the oil pan is not an easy DIY job. I had more trouble with that and the lower mount than with the LIM job. It is doable, but not an easy job.