My car has been leaking oil for about a week now. It seems to be dripping from straight above exhaust pipe directly behind the oil pan, but i can't see very far up there. Any idea's of the source, and how much it might be to fix?

 

sounds like your rear main seal

 

I took it to the shop and they said it was the oil pan gasket. They estimated it at $375. Is it something i could do myself?

 

Honestly, for the oil pan gasket, I would probably pay the $375 to have it done. Unfortunately, you have to lift the motor in order to remove the oil pan, and there's no way to replace the gasket unless you do this. (Well, theoretically, you could remove all of your front suspension and work backwards...) I did mine myself... started at about noon and finished around midnite. I don't know if all cars are like this, but my a/c compressor was in the way of the motor mount, and had to be removed just to lift the motor sufficiently to remove the oil pan. This may not be the case in all cars, but I know mine was a pain the @$$. After that job, I was pretty much ready to give up on doing anything myself... until I looked at my car the next morning and fell in love with her again So... If you decide to do the job yourself, let me know, and I'll tell you more of the specifics on how to do it...

 

Mines' leaking too. Sounds like a problem for the V6's?

When I swapped pan gaskets on my other Camaro, I just put a block of wood under the pan,
after removing the motor mount bolts, I lifted the motor with a jack, just enough to fit some wood blocks between the motor and the mounts/engine cradle.
Then let the jack down and it was enough to pull the pan down and out.

I don't see why it should take more than 4 hours. But I haven't looked underneath at the V6 to see how hard it would be, only to find where my leak was.

 

I just had my rear main seal, oil pan gasket, oil level sensor, and oil pressure sensor all replaced, since they were all leaking.

It cost me a total of just over $600 for all four. To replace the pan gasket, the exhaust must be removed, but the engine does not need to be. According to the book, it's 2 hours of labor to replace it.

The guys at the shop I go to are good guys. Be careful of people trying to rip you off.



EDIT: Didn't see that you had the 3.8L. It might be different for that motor.

 

I had my main seal leaking too about a year ago. It was under warranty and it took the dealership THREE TRIES to get the leak to stop. Each time the leak would stop for about a month, then leak out again.

Each time...same seal. Probably just a problem with our cars just like the phantom noise out of the rear going over speed bumps and the problems with saturns leaking oil.

Eh...

 

Same problem with mine, and it's a '97 V6. It leaks about a drop or two/week. Just enough to **** me off, yet in all reality, I will sell the car in a couple of years. Until then, I'll just be on the EPA's most wanted list