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I never had problems with white smoke, but on my 1999 civic, it took them a while to figure it out. They changed the oil pan, and still had a leak, then they changed the rear main oil seal. I still noticed a leak. They said it was the transmission leaking and they changed the gasket. They did that one for free. It cost me a little over $1000 to have all that done. I learned that changing the rear main oil seal involves removing the transmission. I learned that it’s best to read and understand how things work before having them repaired because the dealers/auto shops sometimes don’t have your best interest at hand. I had my timing belt changed by the dealer at 90k miles. Shortly after my water pump went out. I had it repaired by a non dealter auto shop. They changed the timing belt, and water pump. Also I needed a timing belt changed on my 2002 honda odyssey. The dealter quoted a high price for timing belt only. I decided to take it a non dealter. They quoted me a lesser price and said they would change the water pump, timing belt and tensioner. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had good experiences at dealers, but it just goes to show that obtaining some knowledge through reading or elsewhere can go a long way.
The best way to find a oil leak is to use a UV dye in the oil and using a black light.
If you see evidence of oil build up around a certain area, you could use some engine degreaser, clean the suspected area and then drive the vehicle. Then re check.
Usually evidence of a rear main seal leak would be apparent near the rear of the block and the bell housing on most vehicles.
I wouldn’t use any of the ‘mechanic in a can’ oil leak fixes. You could use a high mileage oil with seal conditioners in to see if that would minimize the leak.
+1 Yes, dreamer. UV dye is my new friend. I plan to use it on a friend’s car that has a mystery leak.
Hi kurtcephe,
I have a ’94 Camry, 2.2L. Great suggestion by all. +1 for dreamer2355 with the UV dye. How many miles are on this Camry? My Camry had a small oil leak, but it eventually got to be a sizeable one. It would drip 15 mLs of oil on the driveway just idling for a short time. It turned out to be a leaky seal on the oil pump. I ended up doing the timing belt, water pump, and oil pan gasket too, as they were all due for replacement.
Good luck. Definitely interested to see how this one turns out. Keep us posted.
Thank you for all your suggestions and ideas.
The next thing I will ask is definetely the UV test.
I let you know when I got some results.
By the way, Camry has 105k on it right now. I bought it around 93k
and sadly I could not have it fixed since then. Probably, as BigC had it my oil leak problem is developing.What I normally do in your situation is to clean the area of all resedue, this will do 2 things, first it will make the leak easier to find but it will also make it easier to verify the repair when your done. After that you can use the dye that was suggested but you could also use leak detection powder or foot spray (yes I did say that) as they both but a nice white coating on the area that makes finding leaks a lot easier. My bets are on the rear main as Murphy’s Law and my experience tell me that’s your culprit.
If he’s rude to you, go somewhere else. It’s your money and you shouldn’t have to put with that. Any reason you don’t want to tackle this job yourself?
Hi twiggy,
sadly I don’t have the time and a garage to work on my Camry nowadays.
That’s the main reason behind this. I just don’t want to have the leak problem once this oil pan is done.
I hope that they know what they are doing.Thanks.
Hi Everyone,
I just picked up the car. Drove like 15 minutes still some white smoke is coming but the smell a little bit changed. I called the shop, they told me that they washed the engine parts that’s the chemicals burning and it is going to go away (I hope so). I let you know if it still continues. If it does not seems that the oil pan was leaking.
Thank you for your suggestions.
Hi Guys,
finally I took the car to the mechanic. He told me that it is leaking from oil pan gasket.
He would like to replace it. He just figure this out in half an our, I don’t think that he used any dye.
Anyways, he is also asking 250$ for this. The toyota dealer asked 236$ for oil pan reseal. Is these two repairs same
thing? If it is I will reconsider it. By the way, he is extremely rude to me =) I don’t know why that also bothers me.
I picked this shop due to some reviews on google (they said affordable and good?) but now I have some doubts.Thank you guys.
Hi Forum,
I drove my Camry more than 600 miles since the repair, smell is gone, smoke is gone, it seems like the problem is solved.
Thank you for all the suggestions.
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