Rav4 4.1 1995 Oil Leak

[Worlds End Stu]

Hi Gang,

I noticed a bit of a smell from the engine bay and it looks like this is being caused by a bit of oil dripping onto the exhaust from the engine block.

As far as I can tell it appears to be coming from the Oil Filter.

The filter looked pretty old so I replaced this but when I took the car out for a blast it still seemed to be leaking (although possibly not so bad).

I tightened filter as per Haynes manual (ie: hand tighten until it stops and then give it a 3/4 turn, though I may have just done a 1/2 turn) and as far as i'm concerned it should be on tight enough and am a little apprehensive about over tightening it and wrecking the gasket.

Oil drippage/spray seems located around the area of the oil filter and dipstick. There is no evidence of oil on the engine higher than the bottom edge of the oil filter and if I put my finger on the bottom of the filter I come away with a drip of fresh oil on my finger, which is why I suspect the filter.

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that it's coming from the other usual suspects like the oil pressure sender.

Oil only seems to leak when the engine is running.

My next step is to clean up the oily area and find something heat resistant to put around the oil filter area and then to run the engine in an attempt to prove the filter is the culprit.

Soooo.... From the information here would you think the oil filter is the problem or could it be something a little more difficult to see hidden by the manifold?

If it is the oil filter, then any ideas why putting on a new replacement hasn't sorted it?

Cheers!

[bothwell_buyer]

On the 3sfe, I had problems with the crankshaft oil seal... but not the oil filter don't think.

What you're proposing to trace leak seems the best way.....

I did have the same on our Daewoo forklift and it was the oil filter base thingy that the cartridge screws onto that had cracked. Different engine tho - dieselly oil burner!

Have you checked if theres a bit of crankcase pressure maybe causing leak... remove oil filler cap and see if theres a gale blowing out??

[Worlds End Stu]

I cleaned off the oil from the engine so I could attempt to see where any new oil was leaking from and then tried to give the oil filter an extra bit of a tighten, not that I managed to move it more than a fraction of a millimeter.

Ran the engine up to temp and looked for any leaking oil around the obvious suspect areas using paper towels on sticks to get in the various nooks and crannies. Not a spot anywhere.

Then I took the car out for the day and covered about 70 miles of varied driving.

Not a spot of oil has leaked out anywhere.

Fingers crossed, maybe putting the new filter on sorted the problem and it just took a few miles to seal properly?

For now though, all looks ok....

[bothwell_buyer]

I cleaned off the oil from the engine so I could attempt to see where any new oil was leaking from and then tried to give the oil filter an extra bit of a tighten, not that I managed to move it more than a fraction of a millimeter.

Ran the engine up to temp and looked for any leaking oil around the obvious suspect areas using paper towels on sticks to get in the various nooks and crannies. Not a spot anywhere.

Then I took the car out for the day and covered about 70 miles of varied driving.

Not a spot of oil has leaked out anywhere.

Fingers crossed, maybe putting the new filter on sorted the problem and it just took a few miles to seal properly?

For now though, all looks ok....

well done - a bit of patience goes a long way as I hope yer RAV does now!