oil leaks

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Sun 15 Sep 2002 21:53
oil leaks - gary blunt
I have a '92 nissan primera which unfortunately has a very small oil leak which is making a bit of a mess of our drive. I have heard of various products which you can add to the oil, has anybody had any experience of these? Also where would I start, when looking for a leak, do nissans have particular places that they leak from? Thanks. Gary.
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Sun 15 Sep 2002 22:11
oil leaks - Cyd
You don't say what your drive is made of, but if it's tarmac then oil will ruin it pretty quickly. Get down to your nearest B+Q and buy a tub of Thompsons Drive Seal and a roller & tray to put it down with. Then you will be able to preserve your drive and periodically clean it up. This is probably your quickest and cheapest option unless the leak is particularly easy to locate and fix.

Thompsons also do other products to seal other surfaces if it's not tarmac.
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Sun 15 Sep 2002 23:00
oil leaks - Dizzy {P}
Gary,

I don't have any direct experience of oil-leak stoppers but was involved in my previous employment in assessing quite a lot of magic cure-alls of one kind or another.

I would say that you could use one of those products if you were thinking of getting a new engine anyway. Otherwise I wouldn't touch them.

An oil-leak curing product probably works by increasing the viscosity of the oil so that it won't pass through small gaps, or it may work by changing the material properties of the gaskets and seals so that they swell up and fill the gaps. Either way there is a huge potential for engine damage in my view.

I'm talking here only about stuff that's added to engines and/or transmissions; so far as I know, products like Bars Leaks for sealing coolant leaks are not harmful if used in moderation.

If the product label says "Approved by (major car makers)" you should be OK. Otherwise I would leave well alone.

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Sun 15 Sep 2002 23:41
oil leaks - lezebre
It is engine oil is it? If so, I'd go with the advice offered that inaction is probably your best plan - apart from protecting the drive! I'm with the others that you shouldn't consider adding any kind of 'gloop'; that sort of thing might have been fine with Ford Prefects, but not in your precision engine.

If, on checking, you find that it's transmission oil, then you need to keep on top of the problem, preferably by doing a gearbox oilchange first, then topping it up from time to time.

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Mon 16 Sep 2002 09:39
oil leaks - RichardW
Should be fairly easy to narrow down where the leak is by looking under the bonnet / underneath, and it should be possible to work out where it's then coming from.

I used the stop leak stuff in my BX TD at around 80,000 miles - it stopped the camshaft oil leak nicely, and no adverse effects on the engine over the next 55,000 miles. It didn't stop the oil pouring out of the knackered head gasket down the back of the engine though!

Richard

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