Been dripping a little bit for the past couple weeks. Replaced oil filter yesterday and topped off my oil. Long story short, overfilled it by a couple quarts, ran it to work without realizing (5 miles one way).

So, I drained the excess this morning so that the level was where it was supposed to be. Now, it seems as though the leak is possibly worse. Almost like a steady little drip while parked and idling. Kind of looks to be coming from right next to/below the oil filter on the oil pan, but that could just be where it's pooling and dripping down.


Do I need a new oil pan gasket perhaps?

Is this is a head gasket issue? (I'm at 250,000)

Has anyone else had anything similar sounding to this happen to them?

Help.

 

when u changed it did u make sure u got the old seal out for the oil filter? second i would just check the bolts on the pan and see if any are loose. might want to clean it all off and see if u can get a better idea of where it is leaking from.

 

Clean, clean, clean. Gravity is not your friend; every oil leak looks like it's coming from the pan gasket or rear seal. Use something simple like spray-on degreaser and a garden hose. You could easily have something as simple as a leak in the valve-cover gasket.

(I'm curious how you managed to overfill by a "couple" of quarts. You were dumping oil into the engine and didn't notice you already had 7 empties lying on the driveway?)

 

x2

 

How long have you had the vehicle? Has the head gasket service recall been done on it? Call your local Toyota dealer and give them the VIN and ask if it has been done. If not, they will do a full head gasket replacement for free (or at least on mine they did). The work included all new gaskets and cleaning and what not on an engine with 278k. They gave me a rental for the day for free as well.

 

He overfilled sounds like because he didn't do a full oil change. Just a filter swap and top off with the old existing oil still in it. Just like Justin said you may have double gasketed it. This is an easy thing to do by accident. Did you get the filter on good and tight? I do this stuff for a living so I know all to well about how much of a pain it is to get that 3614 up there. I almost never suggest using a band wrench when putting on an oil filter but due to the angles it wouldn't hurt to use a band wrench after installing the filter hand tight and then just giving it about a quarter of a turn. That way it won't be to tight and damage your spindle or mounting plate but it will make sure it's good and snug up there so the gasket can get a really good seal. If I were you I'd pull the filter again. Since you just did a top off it should only take about a half a quart after you throw up the new filter. Take a rag and wipe down the filter mounting plate and put a twist on the spindle. Sometimes those become lose. After you've done that make sure you oil the gasket on the filter and throw it back up. While you have that skid plate off definitely grab some spray degreaser (O'Reilly Auto Parts brand works really good!) and just spray everything thing down good! After you clean it up just like everyone else said check all the oil pan bolts to make sure none are lose. If you want to get real fancy about it while you're at the parts store you can get some of that oil dye additive the, when used under a black light, can help you pinpoint exactly where your leaks are coming from.