oil leak

[TIFFRO]

Ok so I took my Xterra in for an oil change, got home and noticed about a 12 inch puddle of oil underneath, thinking they didn't tighten the drain bolt down I got underneath and noticed the oil steadily dripping from a hole. Here are some pics, give me your thoughts.

[TIFFRO]

they put 5 quarts of oil in also, is this too much?

[dejablue]

i put 5 qt in mine all the time. looks like rear main seal is leaking.

[Drake]

I agree on the rear main seal. 5 quarts is too much for the 3.3L It's standard capacity is 3.5 quarts.

[fisher93]

The leak may be the oil pan gasket. I had a leak about two weeks ago took to my machanic and he said it was the pan gasket not the seal.

[Ed-Terra]

Gen 2 takes 5.4 quarts (or something like that)

Sounds like the dummys read the wrong book for your X.
Lets hope the extra oil is just seeping out somrhow and didn't ruin the rear main seal!


I'd recommend not driving it untill you check the dip stick for over fill!

[thumperpaul]

Sounds like they goofed, especially if you didn't have this problem before. My 2003 3.3L takes only 3.4L of oil, and judging from what was posted earlier, it sounds like some nimrod misread your truck as a second gen Xterra and overfilled the crankcase. (4.0L engine)
Drain off the excess before you blow some seals, and do the basic maintenance yourself. (VERY easy to do on the Xterra) To give you an example, when I first bought my X, I discovered that some idiot had filled the 5 spd transmission with ATF!!!! I only hope that I don't get any tranny problems down the road as a result of this.
If you do the basics on your truck yourself, you get to know it better...just my 2 cents...I won't trust my baby to some moron pump jockey!

[TIFFRO]

Yeah we called and informed them they overfilled it, he claimed that just because it says 5 qts on the paperwork doesn't mean they put that much in (yeah right) . Never had any trouble before the oil change and even after leaking out 3 10" puddles of oil the dipstick still showed too much oil. So he had us bring it back in so he could drain the oil to the right level and said if that didn't fix it to let him know and he would make it right.

After taking it back to him the dipstick shows no oil on it, I'm about to go out and take the drain plug off to see how much oil is in this thing. He also marked the oil cap and dipstick with red paint markers, what's the purpose of that?

[thumperpaul]

Like I said before, if you DIY, there's no worries....

[buckethead47]

i would just drain whats in in and put new oil in it.