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Mystery Fluid Leak near drivers wheel

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Antiqueford

Probationary Member
13
0
Feb 12, 2010
Grantsburg, Wisconsin
After getting my GVR4 put back together after rebuilding the engine and 5-spd, I have a fluid leak that is literally coating my driver's side a-arm and cv-axle outboard of the joint itself.

It's thin fluid and appears to be brake fluid, but after pulling the wheel and having a buddy pump the brakes and stand on the pedal for 10 min, the pedal didn't sink and I see no brake fluid leaks. I guess I've never really heard of a "slow" brake fluid leak, that stuff's under enough pressure, no matter how small the hole is, it don't take long to lose a ton of fluid. That said, I've pretty much ruled out brake fluid.

The other possibility (although a little outlandish) is my torn cv-boot. I did pressure wash the engine bay while the engine was out. Maybe I filled the boot up with water, and now its slowly spraying out as I drive? It doesn't appear to leak when the car is idling.


Otherwise, I'm looking at an oil leak of some sort, but it would seem like its pressurized oil to be spraying that far out from the engine, which one would think I'd be able to spot with it idling. There is a little fluid on the belts, but next to nothing on the block. The timing belt is not oiled down, which would indicate a bad front case seal.


Any ideas or advice? I can't very well dye the oil since its such a fresh build I don't want to compromise it in any way. I can clean it all off and take it for a short drive, but as soon as it leaks, its instantly sprayed everywhere...
 
I run ATF in my PS system. Its not ATF.

The fluid is thin like brake fluid, but also seems almost watered down.

The axle seal is a long way from where the fluid is... and it doesn't smell like gear oil.
 
It could be oil. My car blew a head gasket but months before it had oil leaking out of the side of the head. Check your oil levels. Also do your belts squeal?
 
Looks like I'm a bit low on oil... Looking at it again, it seems like it's concentrated on the back side of the engine, which kinda rules out all the obvious places on the OFH, and I still don't believe it's the crank seal.

Thanks for all the quick responses guys, guess its time to put it back up on jackstands and do some digging.

Zach, my belts squeal for a second on startup. I chalk that up to never having replaced them.
 
Have you actually pulled the timing cover to rule out the front case seal? I had a leak that sprayed oil outside the back of the block and it turned out to be a bolt that fell out and landed between the timing belt and timing cover. Who knows how long i was driving like this for. My bud found the leak with a flashlight while i was free revving a bit. I am not saying your bolts fell out but they could be loose causing the gasket to fail.

This is the bolt. The leak came from the right of the bolt hole.
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The bolt was in there so long it wore a groove in the belt.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if it was something around the oil pump. There's a pile of sealing surfaces and even more bolts in that area.
 
Well.... I found my oil leak, and then proceeded to make it worse...

With the engine idling, I noticed a drip from the adapter for my new oil pressure gauge. I have a bad habit of not tightening pipe threads enough for them to seal, so I just grabbed a wrench and went to give it a 1/4 turn, but the adapter just crumbled and I found out how easy it is to soak the entire front of the engine with oil within a couple seconds.

There's a little bit of the adapter still sticking out of the OFH so I filed flats on both sides, and grabbed it with a vice grip, but it seems like really cheap brass and just basically falls apart when I try to turn it. Looks like I gotta pull the OFH... I'll borrow my buddies dremel tomorrow and try to get some better flats on whats left of it, but I doubt anything but a drill bit will get it out of there...
 
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