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Oil Leak philosophy
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Posted by Ari [Email] (#2847) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Ari) on Tue, 8 Oct 2002 15:24:07 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Oil Leaks, Toby Field, Mon, 7 Oct 2002 11:24:32
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In general, unless you're leaving an oil slick, it's cheaper to feed an oil leak than to fix it.
You're losing around 200ml/month. That's a quart every five months. I don't know how many miles you're driving, but assuming it's about 12K/year, I'd guess about half that isn't leakage, but useage. No valve seal/piston ring is perfect, so 1/2 quart every 5K miles or so is actually pretty good. That's perfectly normal.

Even at Mobil 1 prices, that means about $10 in oil a year 'lost'. But I hope you're changing the oil at least twice a year, so you really don't have to top off more than 1/2 a quart or so, so that's more like $5 of oil a year.
Assuming you're losing 1/2 quart every 5 months from a weeping main seal - let's see, replacing a main seal will run you about $150, so that repair will pay for itself in, oh, 30 years. Not a good payback.

I recommend fixing an oil leak for three reasons-
(1) you're leaking lots of oil onto a hot part, like the catalytic converter - Fire hazard. And that's a lot of oil.
(2) You're leaking enough oil that you run the risk of running the engine low on oil because you aren't checking it often enough. If you check the oil once a month, you're fine with your leak.
(3) you're dripping enough on the ground that it's ruining your driveway, or you're concerned about the environmental impact.

That usually works out to a quart leaked every few weeks, not months. And noticeable dripping from the car. As long as you keep the oil level between half-full and full, you're just fine.

Good luck!

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