)I changed the oil, oil filter & spark plugs 2 days ago (08/31). HAD to be done (prev owner didn't do this for over a year). The car had an oil leak before I changed the oil. After changing the oil I hoped this would've fixed it. Now here's the weird part, the car STOPPED leaking after the oil & plugs change buut once I started the car I notice oil started leaking. This leads me to think the oil is only leaking when there is pressure in the engine. (when the engine is running).
I looked EVERYWHERE under the car for this blady leak & only found 2 potential causes:
1. Oil drain plug - under the oil sump I can see evidence of oil dripping from the plug side. (this is not as bad as the leak coming from the oil filter bracket/oil cooler.) I noticed the seal ring on the oil drain plug wasn't looking so "healthy" when I took it out. I didn't have any replacement seal/washer for this so I just cleaned it off & put the old one back on.
2. Between the oil filter bracket & oil cooler - When the engine is running there is oil leaking between the oil filter bracket & the oil cooler (I'm pretty sure I didn't overfill the engine with oil, I believe 3.5 - 4.0 litres of oil is the magic number for polos, and no I didn't use a measuring jug I just used the lines on the side of the oil can as guide to see how much oil I used
). When changing the oil filter (with no specialized tools) I had to resort to using a hammer & screwdriver to get the old filter off. Now it was dark outside by the time I started working on the car & I'm pretty sure I "kapped" miss a few times when trying to knock the screwdriver into the oil filter, that being said I noticed there is a slight gap between the filter bracket & the oil cooler & that's where the oil is coming out. I didn't measure the gap but its quite visible with the naked eye. The gap is also conveniently located on the side where I was "kapping" with the screwdriver. Also this was my FIRST time ever changing oil & plugs & I had no help besides lots and lots of youtube videos. Also I'm pretty sure I screwed that oil filter on properly; as the oil filter didn't screw on properly at first so I took it out & tried about 4 or 5 times before I felt the thread going in smoothly & thats how I know (according to youtube
) the filter is screwed on properly. I'll try & measure the gap between the oil cooler & oil filter bracket when I get home I can put the gap into perspective for you guys
