oil leak

[hayden 96 gt]

hi all

 

after i go for a good drive in my 1996 legacy somtimes i see smoke coming out from under the car and i see that there is a small leak coming from the middle of the engine it doesnt leak much because my oil levels have not noticebly dropped any ideas on what it could be

[PetterFan]

Do a search on "Head Gasket". The early EJ engines are prone to head gasket problems, so that would be my first guess. My block was leaking (97 GT) and it was the head gasket seals.

[NOMAD327]

The most common oil leak problem is from the front crankshaft seal or the adjacent oil pump area. If this is the leak, it will drip down dead center in front and blow back over the bottom of the motor and the exhaust. There will be smoke and burning oil odor. If you look under the front of the motor below the crank pulley there are two vertical metal cylinders protruding down an inch or so, one very near the oil filter and the other on the driver side. There will usually be a couple drips of oil evident on the bottom of these two metal cylinders if it's a front seal leak. It could be from a couple other places, but I would look here first.

[hayden 96 gt]

cheers thanks for your help

[JPX]

As suggested above, if it looked anything like this underneath,

 

then it is probably coming from here:

 

And you'll need a new one of these:

[rweddy]

hi all

 

after i go for a good drive in my 1996 legacy somtimes i see smoke coming out from under the car and i see that there is a small leak coming from the middle of the engine it doesnt leak much because my oil levels have not noticebly dropped any ideas on what it could be

 

I agree probalby front crank seal or oil pump. The oil pump has screws that back themselves out after a few years and leak. When do you need to replace your timing belt? You can do this all at the same time.

I let mine leak for 25k before I needed to to my timing belt.