oil leak

[Bserk]

My 96 OB wagon has been almost flawless since I got her back together last Spring. So when my mom's Maxima had to go into the body shop for a week, I didnt have a second thought about loaning her the Subie. Imagine my surprise when she called me after the first day driving the Outback, frantic, telling me there was a 'huge' puddle of oil on her garage floor. Mom lives about 50 minutes away, so its not like I can drive down the street to check it out. Mom is in her late 70's and even with my coaxing, refused to open the hood and check the oil. LOL, ok, I guess I cant ask that of her. The next morning she backed the car out of the garage, onto her steeply angled driveway, and asked her neighbor to check the oil. She calls me back, even more frantic, will NOT drive the car, as the neighbor tells her there is NO OIL in it... Long story short, I drive down, with 4 quarts of oil just in case, park the car on the level....its less than a quart low. I crawl under to check it out....on the front corner of the oil pan there is a bracket that holds the dipstick tube. Around the weld that holds this bracket, a pin hole has rusted through. (Damn salty roads....and the rest of the car looks so great!) I left her my pickup, and took the Subie back to work. I drained the oil, wire brushed the pan all around the leak, used some brake cleaner to wash it down well, mixxed up some 2 part epoxy and coated the area. Let it sit all afternoon and then sprayed it with some high temp black paint. Filled her back up, new oil filter (perfect timing, it was nearly due for a change anyway) and so far she is clean and dry....

 

moral of the story? rent mom a car when her's is in the shop. LOL! It would have been fine, I think worst case, it could have leaked less than 2 quarts, the bracket is far enough up on the pan... anyone else run into this, and if so, you think my fix will last?

[3Pin]

Great story! I bet it will hold......until you loan it out again. No good deed goes unpunished! Just kidding.

[porcupine73]

The fix could hold. JB weld type stuff works great in cool static applications. It can work in warm/hot situations with vibration if the load on it isn't too strong. It sounds like you prepped the area well. You might go over the epoxy with some copper rtv or ultragrey or something like that as an added layer of protection.