LSV8FAN
Active LVC Member
The 2005 Lincoln LS V8 had a one time (so far) oil leak. Took the car for like a 30 mile round trip and parked it in the garage. Two days later, when my wife took it out to go shopping, I noticed an oil puddle on the floor and after she came back from shopping and parked the car, there were no additional leaks. Next day, upon inspection to determine where the leak came from I saw that the driver's side valve cover had a leak around the oil fill tube; the oil fill tube had drops of oil practically all the way up to the cap. I checked and found the oil fill tube had a very small gap between it and the valve cover, indicating that the gasket was no longer providing a good seal; when I tried to wrap a thin kite string around it, the string only fit about 25% of the diameter of the fill tube. Per design, to replace the gasket one needs to remove the valve cover to be able to deflect the snaps to remove the oil fill tube. Instead, I cleaned the area around the fill tube and used J-B weld 2-part epoxy with metal to seal the gap between the valve cover and fill tube.
Since it was time for the oil change (I do it once a year in October since we put an average of 1,600 miles/year), upon removal of the oil filter there was more than I typically saw oil pouring out of the filter adapter and, after pouring the oil out of the filter and setting it aside standing up, I didn't see additional oil accumulating at the bottom of the filter. This leads me to believe that probably the check valve inside the filter was stuck and didn't allow oil to properly circulate within the filter, instead it just by passed it.
The car only has 88,600 miles and has been working fine, so I don't understand whether there was some significant pressure build up under the valve cover that caused oil to leak out or it is normal for oil to leak out when the seal between the fill tube and valve cover fails. If it was pressure, that should have been relieved through the hose that connects from the valve cover to the air intake.
I'll continue observing to see whether this was a one time event related possibly to a filter failure, or if there is something else that has failed. Any comments and feedback you have are appreciated.
Since it was time for the oil change (I do it once a year in October since we put an average of 1,600 miles/year), upon removal of the oil filter there was more than I typically saw oil pouring out of the filter adapter and, after pouring the oil out of the filter and setting it aside standing up, I didn't see additional oil accumulating at the bottom of the filter. This leads me to believe that probably the check valve inside the filter was stuck and didn't allow oil to properly circulate within the filter, instead it just by passed it.
The car only has 88,600 miles and has been working fine, so I don't understand whether there was some significant pressure build up under the valve cover that caused oil to leak out or it is normal for oil to leak out when the seal between the fill tube and valve cover fails. If it was pressure, that should have been relieved through the hose that connects from the valve cover to the air intake.
I'll continue observing to see whether this was a one time event related possibly to a filter failure, or if there is something else that has failed. Any comments and feedback you have are appreciated.
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