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I recently noticed a few small (quarter size) oil spots on the driveway where my wife parks her GS300. I immediately checked the car once she got home from work. There was no oil present on the left side of the engine. The right side though....that's a different story. I snapped the picture below of the right side area of the engine showing the results of oil leaking. Would this generally be the sign of the gasket (not sure which one is on the right side) needing to be replaced? If not, any ideas what the cause might be? I drove the car a couple weeks ago and it seemed to run fine. I've never even noticed any smell of burnt oil or anything like that. Thanks in advance for any help!
Doesn't somebody out there have a response for this? Am I asking a really dumb question and don't know it? Is it unlikely that it could be a head gasket? I'm hoping, at worst, it's a valve gasket. I'm just looking for some guidance here and any help is much appreciated.
Looks like
1. Someone did the oil change and wasn't careful with the filter and spilled oil.
2. Aftermarket oil filter is leaking from o-ring
3. Power steering hoses are loose. ( less likely )
The oil was last changed probably 8 months ago. The car gets maybe 500-600 miles a month on it. I just started noticing the liquid on the concrete the past couple of weeks. It smells like oil to me. I checked the oil and it was really low. The power steering fluid was low too. My wife recently commented about the car making a noise after first getting into it and taking off. She said it was a little more difficult than normal the turn the wheel. I did the power steering fluid change this weekend (after I took the picture) and that appears to have fixed that issue. I'm hoping it's something with the oil filter failing.
Would you guys expect more oil or oil in different spots if it was an issue with the valve gasket? Thanks again for all your help with this.
Clean it up with a brush, then take it for a 15 min drive. The way it's spraying it looks like a pressurized source, which is bad, because it could get a lot worse really quickly. The other member is right the color of the fluid will tell a lot, but if your power steering fluid is that dirty you can't tell, you should probably exchange it.
take a white paper towel and dab that area. What color is the fluid?
Unfortunately I wiped most of it off this past weekend when I changed the power steering fluid. I wiped it off with blue garage towels so I couldn't tell what the actual color was. It looked really dark though but that could be from all the dirt and grime that was on that part of the engine area. I just assumed it was oil and never gave it much thought that it could be anything else. My power steering fluid looked black so it would have been hard to tell the difference anyway.
Originally Posted by Fromthesha
Clean it up with a brush, then take it for a 15 min drive. The way it's spraying it looks like a pressurized source, which is bad, because it could get a lot worse really quickly. The other member is right the color of the fluid will tell a lot, but if your power steering fluid is that dirty you can't tell, you should probably exchange it.
I cleaned the main area in the picture this weekend. I'll check it after driving it again. Hopefully there is nothing there.
02-20-15, 03:38 PM
GS300 Oil Leak w/ pic
