Oil leak

Anyone identify this issue? Not gonna pretend I know what it is but just curious? It’s a dark oil, kind of has a brown look to it. It’s coming off that bolt I tried to take a photo of.

taking it in as soon as I can get an appointment, just stressing us all. Transmission oil is what one dreading hearing. Doesn’t that mean big underlying issues?
Any thoughts would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

Best way to know where a leak is coming from is to thoroughly clean everything (degreaser and elbow grease) then monitor closely. That would tell you if the leak is coming from that drain plug, or if its coming from further up.

That being said, thats the oil pan drain plug in your picture. My bet is the crush washer has finally given up the ghost, or it wasn't even installed on the last oil change

 

That is the oil drain plug. You can try and tighten it yourself using a 14mm socket.

 

It’s possible that it is the drain bolt.
But with the amount oil further up the pan, and all over the cross-member, there may be a different problem.

 

Yep, oil drain bolt, do you do your own oil changes? The washer for the bolt should be changed periodically, I'm guessing it's leaking good and blowing back onto the rest of the engine when driving.

 

Air moves rearward of the truck so there is no way that an oil leak from the drain plug would make it's way forward, additionally oil follows the general rules of gravity so there is no way the oil can make it's way upwards to the front unless that was a rotational item.

That leak is coming from higher. Either the oil pan is starting to leak, the secondary oil pan is leaking, or the valve cover gaskets are leaking.

 

I see no oil forward of the pan? Doing 70 or 80 mph would blow hot viscous oil into a lot of places, I think your assumptions of all those other leaks is kind of unfounded.you can actually see oil on the bolt head,

 

That oil pan shot is forward of the vehicle. Like I said, there is no way the drain plug would leak oil forwards and have a trace of leakage coming from above.

I've been tracking oil leaks for years and while some are more difficult than others this one is not the case.

If OP would not be lazy and actually crawl under the truck and take a shot of the oil pan upwards I bet you we would see the oil leak coming from elsewhere, not the drain plug. Might the drain plug be leaking out as well due to a bad washer? Sure, but my money is on that it's not the uppermost source of it.

 

Why take it in to the dealer when you don't know what the leak is?

Just clean everything, make sure the various drain plugs are tight, and monitor--you know, get under the vehicle with a flashlight to see if it is still leaking. A couple cans of brake cleaner and 10 minutes worth of work is enough to get enough of the area cleaned up.

 

Thats not really true.. Air flow through an engine bay is anything but laminar. All sorts of turbulence will whip stuff around and send it every which way, including up and forward. Not to mention the wicking effect. Im not saying that its not a leak further up, Im just saying lets start simple.

Guess we will have to wait for OP to report back regardless..

 

Yeah it's all really speculatory at this point.

What are the chances we will see the OP post back.. probably low. The follow up rate on most of these threads is really low which makes most of these threads useless unfortunately.