Mystery Oil Leak

Technical Discussions - Got a mechanical problem?

Moderator: bajabob

Post Reply
Twitch008
Scoobytruck Lurker
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:52 am

Mystery Oil Leak

Post by Twitch008 »

Hey everyone,

New to the forum. I have an '03 Baja non-turbo 5-speed with a slow oil leak I simply cannot find.

Basically, the boot on the driver side of the steering rack is always wet with oil. It's not the rack itself because inside the boot is dry and it's not losing power steering fluid. The heads and oil separator plate were recently done and are dry. The valve cover is dry. Basically, everything above the rack looks dry. But the oil keeps coming.

Any ideas?
User avatar
Guacamole
Scoobytruck God
Posts: 516
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:11 am
Location: Eastern Shore, MD
Contact:

Re: Mystery Oil Leak

Post by Guacamole »

Welcome!
You indicated it was a 5-speed so I don't know if this will correlate, but when I had my head gaskets done on my 06 NA auto, the transmission oil lines were rusted quite badly and the jumbling around inside the engine bay finally caused a leak. The line on the NA feeds from the driver's side and loops around the engine block and over the axle assembly. I don't know if the manuals have something similar but this occurred shortly after my heads were done. Might be something to look into?
Image
ZUBAJA
Scoobytruck Master
Posts: 276
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:38 pm

Re: Mystery Oil Leak

Post by ZUBAJA »

A picture would be worth a thousand words here. The Passenger side of my 05 FORESTER has the minor leak in the head gasket where the oil return is cast into the block / head. It is minor with only an occasional drip. New gaskets doesn't mean there can't be a leak. Dennis
Post Reply