Explorer Talk banner

Leak? Photos, please help!

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  DILLARD000 
#1 ·
I have a 2005 Sport Trac with 129,000 miles. I noticed the leak in the photos. Can anyone please tell me where it is coming from, and how much trouble I might be in? Thank you!!!
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
#2 · (Edited)
Can't tell what you're trying to show, might be bad lighting, insufficient image resolution, or bad shot angles. Sometimes it's just hard to see things on the bottom of a vehicle due to the dark colors and road grime, but taking pictures at night with a flash or flashlight so no light coming from elsewhere might help (or might not, lol).

Grab a white paper towel and try to find a spot where the fluid is dripping, possibly more pure, and let the drip wick off onto the paper towel to see if you can tell what color and consistency the fluid is.

I mean coolant or washer fluid are water based but everything else is oily and probably different colors that you can compare against in the fluid reservoirs or dipstick if you don't recognize the color, and you can (should anyway) check the fluid levels to see if any are low.

Could it just be your oil pan gasket leaking? It can be best to try to find the highest up point in the engine bay that you see the leak since gravity and wind while driving will push leaking fluid down and rearward.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Three years plus late on this response but it might help someone else:
That's motor oil on back side of oil pan under your 2005 Ford ExST V6~4.0L~SOHC; had simular leak on my 2001 ExST.
~ First try tightening up the 10mmHexHead lower oil pan bolts, maybe a 1/8 of a turn at a time.
Tighten depending on how loose they feel once you've got a wrench on them; don't strong arm, just good snug.
~ Also make sure you've recently changed or at least cleaned your PCV valve on the back side of the drivers leftside ValveCover; clogged up PCV valves can cause excess pressure which blows oil out the rear seal directly above the rear of the oil pan.
~ If you've still got a leak, drop the pan & install a new gasket; easy to do, gasket is about $25 + cost of oil+filter change. Use opportunity to clean oil pump screen & inspect for notorious broken plastic TimingGuide pieces that drop to the pan.
~ If you've still got a leak, then it's likely a bad rear crankshaft seal, which is not easy\cheap to fix; I'd try some AT-205 oil additive to get that sealed up if it's only a slow\small leak.

This could also be a mixture of an oil plus coolant leak, very likely coolant coming from the notoriously leaky plastic thermostat housing on the top front of the engine & leaking into the "cave" under the intake manifold then down the back side of the engine around the transmission bell housing to were you've taken the photos. Permanent fix is to replace that junk plastic thermostat housing with an aluminum housing. Click my website below for details on how to do that.

Again this is late, but might help others with simular issue.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top