major oil leak conundrum

adamgjohnson

I have this car for a month, and it has had a small oil leak. My oil light went on last night. I went to Autozone and bought 5 qt. I proceeded to pour in about 3qts and by the time I was done it was all at my feet. I first checked to make sure the funnel was in right, it was. I has AAA tow it to my house. This morning I looked and the oil pan plug was in and the filter was on. I poured my last bit of oil in this morning expecting it to leak out so I could see the culprit, and there was no leak. the bottom part of the car is coated with oil but if you look at the engine from the hood you don't see any issues. I imagine this is a seal somewhere? But for it to pour out on the ground and soon as I poured it in I expected a hole of some sore, then when nothing poured out this morning I was baffled. Any advice. also when the engine light went on I check to see if the engine temp was high, it was not.

Mr_Shiftright

You might need to get the car on a lift to figure this out. Run it up just high enough for a creeper to fit comfortably underneath and then pour in some oil and wait for the man underneath to start screaming. Since it poured right out, one would suspect something in the lower part of the engine or possibly a valve cover gasket? Really hard to say without diagnosing it "the hard way"---that is, repeating the incident.