Oil Leak?

[wilef]

I noticed my wife's 2008 Yukon XL 1500 had what looked like oil puddled in the driveway, near the rear of the engine block. I traced the leak upwards to this red hose/connector on the left side of the engine. Pardon my ignorance, but what am I looking at? Any ideas what the fix is on this?

 

[SnowDrifter]

That's a spark plug wire

It would be highly unusual to have oil leaking from that directly. You'd need to have an oil burning rig with a failed electrode/ceramic pushing just enough schmoo up through the plug that it makes its way out the wire w/o blowing off. And without throwing a misfire code. And without dropping the center electrode. Not a common failure point

I'd look in the surrounding area for the source.

- Valve cover gaskets
- Oil pressure sending unit
- Valley pan gasket
- PCV hoses


The intakes on these rigs are dry and have no coolant/oil flowing through them

 

[Big Mama]

Valve cover gasket is my guess. Look above and between the spark plug wires on each side and you’ll see it.

 

[wilef]

I'm told it's the rear main seal. I was quoted a little over $500 to replace it (I'm in southern California). Does this seem like a fair price?

 

[iamdub]

That seems to be a decent price for a rear main seal in So Cal. But, I don't see how oil on the spark plug wire would indicate a rear main seal leak. The rear main is lower than the spark plugs and behind a cover on the back of the engine. I'm not saying the RMS isn't leaking, but the oil where you indicated leads me to the same points @SnowDrifter listed.

 

[Kraig]

If the leak truly tracks all the way up to the spark plug area, it’s not just the rear main.
$500 doesn’t seem out of line considering the amount of labor involved.
Edit to add: looks like Iamdub types a lot faster than me.

 

[donjetman]

I'm told it's the rear main seal. I was quoted a little over $500 to replace it (I'm in southern California). Does this seem like a fair price?

$500 bucks is cheap.

 

[petethepug]

Gawd, I’d love to send you to the Indie diesel tech that dialed in n my 08 AWD Denali XL. He’s bz so gotta call ASAP. While he’s in there with the rear main he can check to see if anything else in there is ready to go and save u major dough.

He can beat $5h, I’m sure of it. IM me if u want the shop info in San Juan Capistrano.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wilef]

Ok, After being told it was the rear main seal and that it wasn't urgent, I kept smelling a burning smell after getting out of the car. The oil seems very low now and the dripping is pretty constant. One photo shows three areas that are wet upon inspection, but the main dripping is the close up shot with the arrow. This connection kept dripping long after the car stopped running. Any idea what this connection is or why it would be leaking? I assume this isn't related to the valve cover gasket that was suggested earlier since it seems higher up. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Doubeleive]

Ok, After being told it was the rear main seal and that it wasn't urgent, I kept smelling a burning smell after getting out of the car. The oil seems very low now and the dripping is pretty constant. One photo shows three areas that are wet upon inspection, but the main dripping is the close up shot with the arrow. This connection kept dripping long after the car stopped running. Any idea what this connection is or why it would be leaking? I assume this isn't related to the valve cover gasket that was suggested earlier since it seems higher up. Any help is appreciated.

View attachment 222717 View attachment 222718

That a is heater hose connector T, and that would be coolant leaking not oil, 2 separate issue's
the coolant T can be replaced yourself if you have the desire to do it, Murphy's law will probably come into play here meaning if that one is leaking the other is soon to follow, you can get both heater hoses and both "T"'s for about $100-150 (oem), it is common for these T connectors and or hoses to just break after being on the truck for years and being subjected to engine and coolant heat.
the oil leak I would definitely get a second opinion no way a real main is going to throw oil forward onto a spark plug-just saying oil flows down and then air/gravity/driving will push it rearward, could be the valve cover or oil pressure sensor which sits on the rear top dead center of the motor behind the intake manifold.

I will add that unless you are certain your initial leak is indeed oil then it has just been coolant the whole time.