Strange Oil leak in cab below steering column

Found this site trying to figure out why motor oil (based on color, smell, and why did I do it, taste) is leaking down a wire cover near the steering column. I have ruled out the clutch, brakes, and power steering, so has the mechanic. This is a 1995 Tacoma with over 222,000 miles and this leak just started two days ago as far as I can tell. The pictures are of the space up behind the dash. The drip is on the black wire cover closet to the diver-side door and drips to the left of the clutch pedal. Let me know if more pictures would be helpful. I saw couple other similar threads but doesn't look like the leak is in the same spot but may be same fluid. Last night I left a piece of cardboard under the truck and there is a small leak below as well I will try to identify todayThanks!

 

I need some help with frame of reference. Let's just talk about the first picture.

I think I'm laying on my back looking up. It appears that the oil is running down the wire casing (my word, not sure it's right). Yea?

Higher up does that wire casing go through the firewall, or what? I'm guessing that the black plastic it's dripping on is air duct. Give us some more clues.

 

You say you have ruled out brake or clutch cylinder leak but I can think of no other source in that area. More info needed

 

+1 ^^^^^^^^

these are the only two sources of fluid found inside the cab unless you or someone else ran a mechanical oil pressure gauge to the dash

 

It may just be oil residue from the steering column seeping from the bearing... given that you have well over 200,000 miles on the truck, thats plenty of time for the little bit of grease in the bearing to break down and lose some oil from the paste. Ill bet if you wipe it off it wont show up again.

 

It appears that your instrument cluster is leaking. Rock Auto has an instrument cluster gasket kit pretty cheap.

 

Why on earth would there be oil or any other fluid in an all electric cluster. I hope you are joking.

 

Lmao

 

There's an oil reservoir behind the cluster... to oil the tach and speedometer.

 

I've got a dollar that says it's transmission fluid/gear oil leaking from your speedometer cable. The 95's still had a mechanical cable that hooks into the transmission. There's a gasket at the bottom/transmission end of the cable to keep the gear oil out, but if it's cracked/split/otherwise failed then oil will travel up the speedometer cable via capillary action as it spins (not a LOT of oil, since it's a very small opening and gear oil is pretty thick) and will leak out at the upper end of the cable. Probably if you pull the dash cluster where the cable connects to the dash is where the oil leak is sourcing from.

 

It's coming from the bypass line that runs through the cluster, to the fetzer valve and back to the catalytic converter fluid exchanger.

 

I would take that bet but I would probably lose. good call I didn't realize the 95 still used a cable

 

Problem is that your fluid doesn't look like tranny fluid. It looks like liquefied grease. I'm leaning toward what the guy above said, bearing grease that over time has turned runny and is dripping down. Wipe it all off and check again in a month and see what you get.

 

Could be brake fluid leaking back through the vacuum booster and coming in on the brake pedal rod

 

Shrug.
Just a guess, based on the info at hand. OP didn't mention if they've got a slushbox or a stick. If it's an automatic then it's not the speedo cable because the fluid would be red. If it's a stick then it's a possibility, because old gear oil is about as thick as the runny discharge you get from old grease.

 

What you never saw brown auto tranny fluid ??

If there is no loss of brake fluid out of either master cylinder Gear oil has a smell you don`t forget if it is the speedometer cable.

I sort of lean toward grease out of the steering column

Myself unless it gets quite a bit worse or the Master cylinders lose fluid I would not worry about it.

 

Haha, even the old burnt useless auto transmission fluid I've seen is still kind of reddish.
I agree that gear oil stinks, but that small of an amount probably wouldn't smell very strongly until you got your nose right up to it.

 

The OP mentioned that he had eliminated CLUTCH and brake fluid this should eliminate auto trans from the equation.

 

My money is on the speedometer cable and transmission/gear oil.

New ATF fluid has a red dye in it, but old oil may still be good even if it's not red anymore.

 

Yes, but you'd be surprised. I had a guy come into the shop I used to work at insisting that we replace his clutch and throwout bearing because his car was squeaking whenever he was at a stoplight. Turns out he had an automatic (a late 90's Taurus), and that the squeaking that he heard at a stoplight was the bearing in his AC compressor going bad (but it was only bad enough that he could hear it when he was parked)
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, he'd Googled his symptoms and came up with a bad throwout bearing and the recommendation that he replace his clutch at the same time
That was one embarrassed man when the tech explained to him that his automatic didn't have a clutch