Leaky cars are OK cars?

For some reason I think this topic is referring to me

I talked to a mechanic at a Corvair shop once who rebuilt a motor that had been leaking consistently, for a long time. He said it was the cleanest motor he had seen in a long time.

Rolling oil change.

Yup. On the bright side, a temporarily permanent oil leak is a fantastic rust preventive.

Appleseed wrote: Yup. On the bright side, a temporarily permanent oil leak is a fantastic rust preventive.

You'd think that, but surprisingly not. Motor oil is oxygen-permeable and oily rust is a horrible thing to work with.

If there's no oil under it, there's no oil in it.

RevRico wrote: I currently only lose brake fluid on one of my vehicles(sucked in through the intake at cold start) so calling it a leak win.

Brake fluid is a horrible lubricant and is corrosive. I'd fix that sooner than later.

Appleseed wrote: Yup. On the bright side, a temporarily permanent oil leak is a fantastic rust preventive.

I remember as a kid spraying the family cars with the wast oil we saved from oil changes. Leaks were just a way of maintaing things.

You mean there are cars out there that DONT leak?!?!?!......mind blown.....

NickD wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: And here I thought this was gonna be a thread about cars which allowed water intrusion during rain events. My Miata leaks, cabin and trunk.

I think water leaks is part of Miata ownership. Mine pisses water in between the weatherstrip and the very top of the window on the passenger's side. I put new weatherstripping in and adjusted the channel all the way out and the weatherstrip still misses the window by 1/4" in spots.

Compared to British Roadsters of the 50s-80s Miatas are bone dry when it comes to water leaks.

Coldsnap wrote: My car likes to leak oil and transmission fluid. It's got 300,000 miles on it so I can probably assume every seal is done with and leaking. This is sort of new to me as I've only owned newer cars and I have the typical american bad habit of OH NO IT LEAKS I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS CAR. The best thing I can do is change a small part of the PCV system on this oil change to slow oil leak a bit. Leaky cars are fine right? I don't need an extremely reliable car, if it throws a rod while driving it I have AAA and can go without a car for weeks until I find another. Who knows, I could get another 120,000 miles if I keep the fluid topped off, right? No need to panic. I have to put about a 1/4 of a oil in it every month to keep it at the half mark on the oil dipstick. Transmission I just top it off every once in awhile.

When I was a British Leyland mechanic, Leyland sent an instructor across the pond to train us on the then new V-12 Jaguars. When we asked why British cars leaked oil (from new) he told us British drivers placed containers under their cars to collect the leaked fluids and poured them back into leaking component.

While not a car... the SR71 Blackbird leaked fuel constantly and safely flew faster (Mach 3+) than anything else for decades.

outasite wrote:

Coldsnap wrote: My car likes to leak oil and transmission fluid. It's got 300,000 miles on it so I can probably assume every seal is done with and leaking. This is sort of new to me as I've only owned newer cars and I have the typical american bad habit of OH NO IT LEAKS I NEED TO GET RID OF THIS CAR. The best thing I can do is change a small part of the PCV system on this oil change to slow oil leak a bit. Leaky cars are fine right? I don't need an extremely reliable car, if it throws a rod while driving it I have AAA and can go without a car for weeks until I find another. Who knows, I could get another 120,000 miles if I keep the fluid topped off, right? No need to panic. I have to put about a 1/4 of a oil in it every month to keep it at the half mark on the oil dipstick. Transmission I just top it off every once in awhile.

When I was a British Leyland mechanic, Leyland sent an instructor across the pond to train us on the then new V-12 Jaguars. When we asked why British cars leaked oil (from new) he told us British drivers placed containers under their cars to collect the leaked fluids and poured them back into leaking component.

Haha!!

In reply to asoduk:

That's true, SR71's fuel tanks leaked like crazy while on the ground and low speeds. In fact, immediatly after takeoff it's first task was mid air refuel. However it sealed up as the body got up to temp as speeds went super sonic.

Anyway, as for the car, personally I'd go as far as to fix valve cover and timing cover (cam/crank seals) and a distributer seal(if equipped). But other than that, run it. Unless it's like driving the exon Valdez.

NEALSMO wrote:

RevRico wrote: I currently only lose brake fluid on one of my vehicles(sucked in through the intake at cold start) so calling it a leak win.

Brake fluid is a horrible lubricant and is corrosive. I'd fix that sooner than later.

While I 100% agree about that, I only managed to figure it out from one post on a forum a few years ago that had no follow up. I'm afraid to start throwing parts at it because I hate doing brakelines and have a feeling I'd be running all new by the time I was done.

I was getting blue smoke at start up, oil, clutch, tranny, all fine, couldn't figure it out until one day my brake light came on and my resevoir was almost empty. Happened to see someone mention the exact thing on an old thread and just assumed it was the cause, but never found a solution. Something in the way the miata makes vacuum at start can pull small amounts of brake fluid through everything and burn it off.

Yes a master cylinder would be a good place to start, but (and yes I know how terrible it sounds) until it becomes a major problem, I'm fine topping off the brake fluid every 6-7k miles.

I have been thinking about trying to make my own weather stripping to prevent getting rained on while driving though. Thinking cellophane on the door and the top, and spray expandafoam into the gap to make a custom, removable mold.

In reference to the SR's leaky fuel tanks, I wonder how fast you'd have to go in a Vega to get all the leaks to seal?

asoduk wrote: While not a car... the SR71 Blackbird leaked fuel constantly and safely flew faster (Mach 3+) than anything else for decades.

Legend has it that a few museum pieces are still dripping JP-7.

Sounds like a good chance to test various stop leak products. Had a shifter rod leak that I found was going to be a full teardown to replace so I used some trensmission stop leak...and it worked! 85,000 miles and still strong.

Bruce

BrokenYugo wrote:

asoduk wrote: While not a car... the SR71 Blackbird leaked fuel constantly and safely flew faster (Mach 3+) than anything else for decades.

Legend has it that a few museum pieces are still dripping JP-7.

The one in Mobile isn't dripping According to the informational placard on it however, the reason they refueled the Blackbird immediately after take-off was because the fuel load would literally blow out the tires if they filled it up on the ground. As it is it had the highest load-per-tire of any plane and required specially reinforced runways. The tires were inflated to 325 psi of pure nitrogen and then would spend the flight in a wheel well heated to 600F . Tires had to be replaced every 3-4 landings.

egnorant wrote: Sounds like a good chance to test various stop leak products. Had a shifter rod leak that I found was going to be a full teardown to replace so I used some trensmission stop leak...and it worked! 85,000 miles and still strong. Bruce

That's a good point. I'm about to drive it down the east coast USA at the and of the month. So I have an oil change and transmission flush in mind. I'll add transmission stop leak and oil stop leak.

I think a little pcv work will slow the engine oil leak down as its been about a year since the flametrap has been replaced. Also the flametrap seems about as mysterious as a clitoris as I've looked a few times and can't find it..

Coldsnap wrote:

egnorant wrote: Sounds like a good chance to test various stop leak products. Had a shifter rod leak that I found was going to be a full teardown to replace so I used some trensmission stop leak...and it worked! 85,000 miles and still strong. Bruce

That's a good point. I'm about to drive it down the east coast USA at the and of the month. So I have an oil change and transmission flush in mind. I'll add transmission stop leak and oil stop leak. I think a little pcv work will slow the engine oil leak down as its been about a year since the flametrap has been replaced. Also the flametrap seems about as mysterious as a clitoris as I've looked a few times and can't find it..

If you add stop leak, use a bottle of ATP-200. That's the only stop leak I've actually seen work decently. The Jeep trans had a slow leak from one of the seals in the bellhousing for years (less than a quart in 30k miles between fluid changes). It finally started getting worse (would leave a drip or 2 every time I parked it). Tossed a bottle of that stuff in there and the leak was gone after about a day. Somewhere around 40k miles and a fluid change later, still no trace of that leak.

Of course, that'll still only help on some types / materials of seals and only if it's just a little stiff or worn but not if it's damaged or really worn. And it won't work on cork gaskets, of course.

Yeah, most of those "stop leak" products are just stupid thick oil, what you're after is high mileage formula oil and ATF, higher concentration of seal conditioners/swellers.

EDIT: I'm a big fan of Valvoline Maxlife for ATF, works in practically everything.

BrokenYugo wrote: Yeah, most of those "stop leak" products are just stupid thick oil, what you're after is high mileage formula oil and ATF, higher concentration of seal conditioners/swellers.

That'll do the trick (or one of the seal conditioner in a bottle type additives).