I just bought this car. Runs great, has 240K mils and 5-speed. But it is leaking underneath somewhere. The oil change guy looked at it and said it was coming out of the oil pan gasket. It is probably leaking a half quart every 600 miles? Where do you think it is coming from and how do I get it fixed? Scott
Optional Information: 1997 Honda Prelude VTEC
Hi, welcome to jA.
Unfortunatly the oil leak can be from almost anywhere, but commonly at this milage the front crankshaft seal, or the oil pump seal will begine to leak if they have not been sericved in the past 100k miles or so. The rear main seal also tends to leak, the transmission has to be removed in order to replace this seal. The oil pan can definitly be the cause, and is the easiest of the three repairs, but the other two also can tend to look like an oil pan leak, and are more involved to repair. The best step to take is have the underneath of the vehicle steam cleaned of the oil that has leaked out to make it easier to find the leak. Most quality shops use the flourescent dye method to issolate an oil leak, a dye is added to the oil and the leak can be viewed with a blacklamp.
~Rip