Stop Engine Oil Leak

Engine oil leak is a relatively common problem which every car owner faces once in a while. It may seem harmless, but that is not exactly the case. Engine oil is of immense importance for proper functioning of the vehicle. It doesn't just act as a lubricant for various mechanical parts of the car, but also doubles up as a coolant in the car engine, thus keeping some serious car problems, including overheating, corrosion, wear and tear of various moving parts, etc., at the bay. Engine oil leak results in loss of oil, and make your vehicle vulnerable to various problems associated with low engine oil in the vehicle. The best measure to avoid these problems is to detect and stop engine oil leak before it leads to some serious damage.

How to Identify Engine Oil Leak?
Identifying oil leaks is not at all difficult, if you are well-versed with some simple telltale signs of the same. The easiest method to detect oil leaks is to check your garage floor or your driveway for oil stains. Typically, any oil stain on your garage or driveway floor is a sure indication of engine oil leak. If required, you can cover your driveway with white paper to make these oil stains easier to detect. While this is the simplest way to confirm if your car has an engine oil leak, it might not always be foolproof.

Minor leaks, or leaks which occur only when the vehicle is in motion, tend to go unnoticed most of the time. Looking under the vehicle chassis for telltale signs of oil stains is a better way to detect such oil leaks. If these methods don't show any evidence, it is highly unlikely that your car has an engine oil leak, though one percent chance does exist. To get rid of any niggling doubts in your mind, opening the bonnet and taking a glance at the engine for oil stains is the final step you can take towards detecting engine oil leakage.

How to Stop Engine Oil Leak?
When you have detected the oil leak, and if you think that the problem is quite serious, resorting to professional help would be a better bet. However, if it happens to be a minor leakage problem, you can repair it on your own with some simple tools which are readily available in your garage. Discussed below are some of the most common causes of oil leakage in vehicles, and solutions to this problem in accordance to the underlying causes.

• Oil leak caused as a result of loose bolts. Solution: You can check if the bolts have become loose, and tighten them if necessary.
• Oil leak in your car caused as a result of worn out valve cover gaskets. Solution: You will have to replace the worn out components with new ones.
• Oil leak attributed to a shabbily fixed oil filter. Solution: You will have to fix the oil filter properly to fix oil leakage.
• Leakage caused as a result of the gap caused by worn out seal. Solution: You can use one of the various stop-leak products available in the market to stop this oil leaks.

Yet another reason for engine oil leaks is damage caused to the oil pan, which can be attributed to bumping onto raised ground or running over a rock. If the damage caused to the oil pan is major, you will have to resort to welding to fix the same. As a temporary arrangement though, you can fix a bolt of the size of the hole into it, until you get it welded. Although crude, this technique is of great help in dire situations.

Due to the disastrous effects that a simple engine oil leak can have on your car, it becomes very important to stop this leakage at the earliest. Simple measures and periodic checks can make sure that this seemingly frustrating problem is avoided. In case, you do come across an engine oil leak in your car, the methods described above will help you to easily fix this problem. However, one should take note that an engine, is a confusingly complex machine, and if you are in any doubt it would be best to avail the services of a reputed mechanic.