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Big oil leak


NIssanBoston
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Hello everyone, it seems i have discovered a oil leak under my pathfinder a couple days ago. It seemss pretty moderate after i work a 10 hour day the puddle from the droplets seem pretty wet. I took it over to my mechanic today because i did not ever replace a oil pan before , he quoted me 800 dollars for the fix 200 for the piece and 600 for 6 hours of labor.. that seemed fishy to me so i questioned it , he then continued to tell me that he has to jack the engine up a bit to remove the pan is this true?, has anyone else ever replaced there oil pan? How tough of a job is it? Most importantly how much on average should it cost to get replaced. Will post some pics up after work. Thanks for the help in advanced.

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If this is a 4WD Pathfinder, that would unfortuantely be about the right amount of labor hours to remove/replace/reseal the engine oil pan.

There is a lot of stuff in the way that has to be removed first, then put back on.

 

Is he certain the leak is from the engine oil pan and not something else?

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The valve covers can leak, run down the back of the motor and look an awful lot like it is coming from the pan. Crawl under with a flashlight and look for the highest place you can see fresh oil. You can feel from the engine bay too between the firewall and the valve cover. Some of the screws/bolts hold the cover on are accessible without some dismantling, some aren't. Look around real well before you shell out a bunch of coin and find out it wasn't the pan after all...

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He didn't really look at it, he just assumed it was from what i said.. And oh god... i really don't have 800 dollars to spare, alkorahil since u work at the dealer how much do they usually charge for this type of job?

If this is a 4WD Pathfinder, that would unfortuantely be about the right amount of labor hours to remove/replace/reseal the engine oil pan.

There is a lot of stuff in the way that has to be removed first, then put back on.

 

Is he certain the leak is from the engine oil pan and not something else?

 

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My local dealer when they did a oil change. Said my pan gasket was leaking also. Just turned out to be my valve cover gaskets. $30 for them from Napa. Even that is pricey.

They did quote something like 900-1000 to change the oil pan gasket. But you can just drop the front diff to do it. Remove the CVs, and drop the front diff. Then you have a lot more room to work with.

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I never did any of those jobs lol so i have no experience with removing them

My local dealer when they did a oil change. Said my pan gasket was leaking also. Just turned out to be my valve cover gaskets. $30 for them from Napa. Even that is pricey.

They did quote something like 900-1000 to change the oil pan gasket. But you can just drop the front diff to do it. Remove the CVs, and drop the front diff. Then you have a lot more room to work with.

 

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I would look at the valve cover gaskets and the rear main before the oil pan.

As said above, oil can leak down from higher up and collect on teh pan, making it appear to be the pan.

 

 

Nissan says it should take 5 hours. ASE standard rate that most shops use says it takes 6.6 hours.

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It seems like it is coming from the valve cover passenger side from furthur inspection yesterday. How would i go about replacing it? it seems like i just unhook a couple of electrical connections some screws and the cover would pop off. I never done one of these before so i'm not going to go by me assuming how it comes off. Any advice would be appreciated . thank you

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I don't recall what year/motor you have (I'm on my phone with sketchy service right now) but assuming you have the 3.3, then yes, it's pretty much as easy as you've described. It's really one of the easiest jobs to do (on the passenger side anyway, driver side is much more involved). Just get a quality gasket (will come as a set, they don't/won't just sell you one), I prefer Felpro, take your time (going slow, might take about an hour for a first timer). Helps to have a few zip ties on hand also, as sometimes the electrical plugs don't like to slide off the mounts and the little tiny plastic tabs break, not a big deal, just secure them with zip ties when you're done. Also make sure both mating surfaces are clean before placing the new gasket and reassembly.

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It seems like it is coming from the valve cover passenger side from furthur inspection yesterday. How would i go about replacing it? it seems like i just unhook a couple of electrical connections some screws and the cover would pop off. I never done one of these before so i'm not going to go by me assuming how it comes off. Any advice would be appreciated . thank you

 

 

Passenger side is super easy and straight forward. Unhook the harnesses and hoses that connect to the valve cover, take a phillips screwdriver and undo the screws holding the valve cover on, being careful not to loose any of them, pull the valve cover off. remove and replce the seal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently replaced the valve cover gasket the passenger side, that side is definitely not leaking anymore. I went down under the truck today to inspect it and i see drips of oil which i think is coming from the transmission, it's not transmission oil it's engine oil. Why is it leaking here? How could i fix it? Should i just bring it to my mechanic and how much should i expect to pay for the repair.

 

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