Oil pan gasket leak

[BHPSteel]

Go to Ball Ground Tire & Auto over on Ball Ground Hwy and ask if they can take a look. (678) 325 1200

I've found them very fair when it comes to maintaining a couple of Hondas and a Subaru we own.

But as others have said, oil for a 2009 Mazda is cheap. If you have to put a quart in every month and park on some flattened cardboard boxes, that'll cost a lot less than a oil pan replacement, or a seal replacement. Plus, they're probably less expensive for an oil change than a lot of places in town.

And while I'm not actually an automechnic, I've never seen a car fire that started in an oil pan, from used oil.

 

[Trailrider]

That's wild that they'd deny service for that unless you paid them for that highly overpriced quote. If it was leaking so bad they couldn't change it, you'd have to be having a pool of oil under your car every night and you'd be having to add a quart plus daily. And it shouldn't cost near that much to replace an oil pan gasket. It's pretty easy and even if you aren't mechanically adept I'd say you can do it yourself. It's a matter of getting under the car, draining the oil through the plug first, then drop the pan, clean up the surface, pop a new gasket on and bolt it back on. Top off with new oil. Under an hour job.

 

[palmettomoon]

OP, should have told them they should be giving you a discount on the oil change since they wouldn't have to wait as long to drain the oil since it was leaking so badly.

 

[spistols]

Dropping and oil pan is easy if there is no crossmember/frame in the way. Otherwise, it is a pain in the ass to lift the engine up a good bit to get the old stuck oil pan off - especially if you are on your back.

 

[BillsCamino]

I'd crawl under it and check the pan bolts for tightness...snug if needed.
Also make sure the "leak" is not coming from around the oil filter.

 

[CAMSDADDY]

The oil change place doesn't want to change your oil due to the possible liability. If they change your oil and it all leaks out you are up there fussing when your engine locks up. I would check the oil and just make sure it doesn't get low. It doesn't take a lot of oil to look like a large leak so it could be minor but it could be serious. I would find a local shop rather than a quick lube place. You need someone to verify what you have been told and quote the job. The job calls for 4+ hours so it tells me that there is more to it than the normal 8-10 bolts drop the pan replace and go.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Something is not right with their story.
Did you already know you have a leak or was it news to you when they said it?

 

[Mk319]

A little off topic but when i rebuilt my front end on my H2 i replaced everything. Took it to a local shop to get an alignment and the mechanic came in and told me i needed ball joints and they couldn’t do an alignment until they were replaced for 3k after arguing with me about how much play there was he switched to it must be the hubs, nope replaced them too. At which point the manager joined in. So i asked to be shown how much play there was and they actually tried and then claimed i just couldn’t see what they could. Got my keys back and left after that.

 

[C'mon man!]

Learn to do your own work on your car, it isn't always as hard as you think, just sometimes a PITA. A pan gasket is simple and easy to tackle yourself. Like already mentioned, you can try snugging the bolts up, once you confirm it's actually leaking from the gasket. Things like timing belts or valve gaskets are more on the PITA end due to having to remove tons of parts, but not rocket science.

If your time is worth more than the money, that's a different story, but then you probably wouldn't be driving an old leaking car.

 

[atljetmech]

The oil pan being the lowest point of engine is always subject even though a leak could be happening above and running down to it.

The proper way to troubleshoot a potential leak is to first clean entire engine top to bottom. Then look for leak source from the top down with or just after running engine (unless you have an obvious gusher) which I suspect you don't having been driving it.

The Question was asked about your oil consumption or do you even check it?