Dealership says engine oil pan is leaking
 

They want over 300 bucks to do the job. Though I have worked on cars my whole life, I have never messed with a rotary (this is my wifes car). I am assuming it is pretty much the same? Drain the oil out of the pan, take out the bolts from the pan (in a star pattern, is that necessary?), drop the pan, replace the gasket and reverse the order for installation?

Another question, they want 175 bucks because there is mildew in the ac vents. I am assuming they just spray some chemical in there which kills it? Something I can do myself?

Sorry for the simple questions. I never worked with a rotary before, I drive an m3 and a pickup truck. I didnt see anything for these subjects in the do-it-yourself section.

Dominik

Dropping the oil pan on the 8 is pretty easy. There are pics of the process on the first page of this thread:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/mazmarts-oil-pressure-bypass-install-some-surprising-findings-189899/

Dunno about the mildew fix. Does the A/C leave a puddle of water under the car when you park it after running the A/C for a while? If not, you may have a plugged evaporator drain. Also, years ago I got into the habit of turning off the A/C (but leaving the blower on) a few minutes before shutting the car down for the day. I also seldom use the "recirculate" setting. Both habits help keep the evaporator coils dry when not in use. No water = no smells.

If you want to check the evaporator drain(which by the way usually leaves puddles on the passenger side floorboard), then see..................


https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/ac-drain-location-176868/


Mold in the vents..........guess I would.......

1.) Find out where moisture is coming from and fix that.
2.) Find some spray that will not affect plastic, but will kill mold.

Google search might be helpful for #2.



Oil pan is nuttin special in my opinion, you got this covered.

I recently paid $275 to get my oil pan resealed to diagnose a leak that I dont think it fixed....

hah Maz i was going to post about duck lips - you use it yourself in the linked thread :). i think dan was the first to use the term.

im not worried about the mold, there is no mold in there. I have seen him sell that bullshit the last 5 times i was in there to other people. ill spray some chemicals in there that i have that are just for that purpose.

thanks for the link on the oil pan gasket

there is no gasket used, its an rtv sealant

wow no shit huh? so just regular blue rtv silicone is good or should i get a special one?

Just did it myself recently. PITA, but not terribly difficult if you have the equipment and tools. A bit time consuming to do it correctly, which means running a bottoming tap through each and every oil pan bolt hole to clean out any silicone that's in there. Failing to do so could result in a cracked housing. A fine wire rotary brush will clean off the oil pan sealing lip well after removing the excess silicone with a razor scraper, but be sure to cover up anything you don't want small silicone pieces to get into. You're stuck taking your time with the razor scraper on the mating engine sealing lip though. Hardest part is busting the oil pan loose from the engine without damaging the sealing lip.


.

Use a scraper on the iron to get the pan started..you don't want to pry on the aluminum housings bits ....just stick to the irons and you will be fine....

If you find a drill bit that is the same size as the inner dia of the threads or slightly smaller...that will work if you don't have a tap to clean out the holes.....you do have to be careful that you don't leave a bunch of crap in the holes...as Team said..it can actually crack the housings

Clean it up nice...use Grey RTV..it is the best in my opinion for this application....

I used permatex black ultra, max oil resistance ;)

http://www.permatex.com/products/Aut...sket_Maker.htm

the latest pressurized dispenser cans rock ...

I did it once to my father's old Nissan Quest (now sold)

It wasn't so hard and like Team said, need to clean the pan/engine side + its time consuming.

yeah I know different car whatever, but shit I mean its all the same ~

Gonna do another oil pan swap next week, to my FC, gonna swap it with the new Pineapple Racing's high capcaity oil pan + gonna mod the oil pressure to 100 psi. ooo this is gonna be fun.

oh for the RTV stuff, use the Black stuff. thats what I use.

300 bux hmm ... well I would say a tube of Black RTV is 7 bux. and it takes about 2 hours of time (taking my time) to take it apart, clean, reinstall.

anyone know what tap size the bolt holes are?

oil pan is easy, just takes a lot of time. make sure u let the silicon dry for 20 min before you start installation, test it with finger, if the outside is tacky and don't stick to your finger and the inside is still soft that is good, also after install, let the silicon dry for 24 hours before putting engine oil. I always use the toyota black silicon for my car.

I don't have the answer, but this question usually implies something went wrong :) One of your fasteners just spinning?

in case u need it, Oil pan bolts part number is 9YA0-20-601A, total 22 of them.

Those whole strip out so easy! I stripped 1.5 of them on my second install of an oil pan. Anything over hand tight and that aluminum goes to shit.

They really strip easily when there is sealant in the bottom of the holes :)

yea well thats why you need to clean it out first. I fully stripped the one on the front cover it was late I was tired. nothings gonna leak from there though that seal is tighter than a virgin on prom night. pre prom not post prom.

:mdrmed::icon_tup:

For oil pan, Im not gonna be cheap I just gonna buy new bolts. yeah I know it strips easily but new bolt is always better than used ones, especially at the bottom of the car, it sees most of the "dirty" stuff and corrodes all the time.

The bolts are basically there to hold the pan firmly in place until the sealant cures. While I wouldn't do it, after curing you could probably run forever without any bolts at all. Use a torque wrench to tighten to specs, or failing that, put the socket on a basic screwdriver handle to avoid over-tightening. If the bolt won't seat with the proper torque, there's crap in the hole.

no nothing happened, havent given this a go yet. after my inspection i cant find any leak. asking about the tap just to have one on hand to get the old sealant out.

i'm suprised that the dealer would advise you of a leak but when investigated personally, you find no leak. the thread pitch i think is 6X1.25. i'll double check and post back when i get off of work at 7am.

You can get $25-$30 tap and die sets that have all the basic sizes. They're not good enough for a shop, but for occasional use are just fine.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...ct_34565_34565

Yeah...Did they try to sell you on "acid rain pain protection" for your paint, too? F'n stealerships!

Great advice here on the oil pan issue.