"Oil"? on the bottom of engine? - Needs trouble shooting

Good afternoon TW,

I was under my truck today and noticed I have some substance underneath the engine, on the transmission, a little on top of my skid,a little on the bottom of the oil pan, none on the drive way.

I have a 99 4x4 trd off road taco.

Anyone have any ideas on what this could be? The below picture is underneath the passenger side. Hopefully nothing to serious

 

Looks like oil to me. Could be engine or trans oil if you have a manual trans. You're just going to have to trace it and see where it's coming from. I would start at the top of the engine and see if anything is migrating down from there.

 

have you changed the oil recently ??

 

Check your oil level! Did you spill oil or let it drip down on the last oil change! Clean off the oil and see if it appears again.

 

I changed the oil about a month ago with a funnel so I shouldn't have had to much spill but its always a possibilty. With a good hard grib I was able to hand turn the filer about a 1/4 turn.

It is a manual.

 

Just checked the oil level and its a little low. Just above the bottom indent.

Here is a pic right where the transmission starts.

 

so recently you were able to 1/4 turn the filter.. maybe a little was coming out there.. hope you find the problem

 

clean as much as possible up with some rags and run it to get a better idea of where the source is

 

Oil leaks that I encountered were due to a look filter, just a 1/4 turn as the poster above said, snugged it up and all was good.

 

It looks like the transmission seal which is a common issue with these 1st gen trucks. The seal itself is pretty cheap, unfortunately though what is costly is the labor because you have to drop the entire transmission.

 

That's what I was thinking and has me worried. I had the clutched replaced last year. I would think they would replace things like seals since they have it apart but I'm not sure if they did. Would a shop reuse the seal or put in a new one?

 

Well that all depends on the integrity of the shop. Most would do it, but you'd be surprised at how many will take short cuts.

 

It is not standard procedure to replace the rear main seal or the front transmission seal when doing a clutch. They don't leak that often (in general, not sure about this specific truck) and why mess with something that is bone dry?

If it's trans oil it should stink like sulfer.

 

They wouldn't reuse a seal that had been pulled out, but they wouldn't have to disturb either one of those seals to change a clutch.

 

Good to know.

I cleaned up all the oil I could reach and left my skids off to recheck in a couple of days.

 

when I changed my oil and gave the oil filter a good 1/4-1/2 turn i started her up and there was oil all over that area. I would check the oil filter.

 

Thanks for the info. I tightened the filter up and I sure hope that is the extent of my problem....

 

^I'm hoping for you bud. (crossing fingers with ya!)

 

I made the same mistake my first oil change of not snugging the filter good enough. Driving around, the wind blows alot of the oil all over the underside.

Snugged it up, and was good to go.

 

Carefully pressure wash it. Wait for it to dry. Use a talc based leak checker to find the leak(cheap version), or add fluorescent dye to the engine oil(more expensive version). Drive for a few days to allow the dye to circulate. Use UV light and yellow glasses to find the leak. If you find no leak on the engine, add it to the trans.

Hopefully it was just the oil filter!