2001 Chevy Tahoe, 164K, it's developed a small oil leak that's maybe 9-12 months old, a drip or two a day tops. I'm nearly sure it's at the front corners of the oil pan, based on where the line of streamlined crud starts. I've got a Haynes repair manual, the tools, and a decent mechanical inclination, and it doesn't look too hard. But this is new one for me. I did a set of brake pads on the recommendation of TWW a while back and it went well.

What say y'all? Do it myself? Shell out the money to let someone who's good at it do it? I don't want to get halfway into it and find out experience is what you get right after you just needed it again.

12/18/2011 2:39:21 PM

Just do it and find out along the way. How are you going to get experience of you never do anything

12/18/2011 3:24:13 PM

You may have the mechanical inclination but removing the oil pan means opening the engine and that means there is a chance you mess something up. There is something like 12,000-15,000 drops of oil in a quart. That means even if your "drop or two a day" doubles, before you run the risk of engine damage the better part of a decade will have passed. Save your time and money and buy a drip pan at the auto parts store. Do you eat pizza? It comes in a box that is perfect for containing a drip like this in an environmentally friendly manner.

[Edited on December 18, 2011 at 3:57 PM. Reason : ]

12/18/2011 3:57:28 PM

Brake pads and an oil pan gasket are like two opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm sure the engine would have to come up off its mounts to clear things...but perhaps not.

I recommend taking optmusprimer's advice. If you aren't losing a quart every month or two, leave it alone.

Especially if it's not making a mess of the garage floor.

[Edited on December 18, 2011 at 5:51 PM. Reason : mess]

12/18/2011 5:51:05 PM

i don't know what the gasket/surface looks like on this car but if you can add some rtv along the edges, that'll probably be sufficient and require the mechanical prowess of an arts and crafts student

12/18/2011 6:12:17 PM

Have you tried tightening the bolts?

I know that sounds too simple, but I took a BMW 318is from "leaks half a quart per week" to "doesn't leak" with that method. Who knows what the previous owner did to it; but somewhere along the way those things decided to start backing out.

Also worked on the leaking rear diff on my dad's Dodge. No new gasket required.

[Edited on December 18, 2011 at 6:28 PM. Reason : s]

12/18/2011 6:24:20 PM

Quote :

"It comes in a box that is perfect for containing a drip like this in an environmentally friendly manner."

That's what I got now. Works double duty for sitting under my Tahoe and oil filter changes on my wife's CR-V.


According to my repair manual, it's nearly a un-bolt-pan, re-bolt-pan sort of operation. But I am apprehensive about opening my engine up. I'm gonna try some bolt-tightenin' and gasket makin' at first and see where ti goes.

Thanks for the tips, everyone.

12/18/2011 7:24:58 PM

oil pan gasket on a 2wd tahoe is cake. so i say go for it.

if its 4wd you might want someone else to do it for you.

12/18/2011 9:27:40 PM

don't strip the bolts

tiny bolts = tiny torque

12/19/2011 3:48:10 PM

Do it yourself. Its easy and youre not going to cause any harm. If you can unscrew an oil filter you can unscrew the bolts around an oil pan.

12/19/2011 6:22:19 PM

Quote :

"don't strip the bolts tiny bolts = tiny torque"

And it doesn't take much torque for a gasket to seal. This took me a long time to really grasp, but if you over tighten you'll just deform the gasket. You want even pressure all the way around (i.e. bring the torque levels up gradually and don't just tighten the bolts in order going in a clockwise pattern). Bring them up from "loosely hand tightened" to "fully hand tightened" and then put your wrench on it and repeat a couple times until they're all snug using some sort of crossways pattern so you tighten one side and then the bolt on the far opposite side.

[Edited on December 19, 2011 at 10:14 PM. Reason : s]

12/19/2011 10:13:06 PM

with oil pans I prefer to use an inch pound torque wrench and find a torque spec

12/20/2011 1:13:02 AM

Just to update,

I got down under the engine with a toothbrush, wd-40, and a roll of paper towels and cleaned all the crud off that I could find. End result was that stuff could run a lot more freely instead of hanging around for driving speeds to blow it back along the engine and off. I drove it around a bit and then parked it in the garage for a day, and it turns out I had a leaking water pump in the front and a bad gasket leaking oil closer to back of the engine.

Atlantic Ave Tire and Auto Friday Afternoon, they had it fixed by Saturday at lunchtime-ish. It's been looking fine since, I haven't seen any new drips on mah cardboard.

1/1/2012 8:34:09 PM

even *I* replaced an oil pan gasket...and it required pulling the transmission


granted, i would never do it again

1/1/2012 10:16:39 PM