Oil Leak After Hit at Bottom

My car's bottom was hit, when I parked my car. Since then, the civic has a oil leak, not so big, about 1 teaspoon per 5 minutes. After 1 week, the oil level changed from the high limit mark to the low limit mark.
I don't want to add oil every week, and want to fix it. It is a 2000
Honda Civic EX Auto transmission.

I went to the oil change shop and they gave me bullshit, and told me that was just the oil left outside of the engine after oil change. It has been 6 weeks after my oil change. After I cleaned the oil under the bottom, it came back again in few hours, and it is clean oil, not dirty oil. I could not see where the leak starts, because I just just put my head under the car.

How much will it cost me? What is the cheapest way to fix. Can I fix myself? Will shops give me a FREE estimate without charging me for telling me what is wrong with it?

It sure sounds like you put a small hole or groove in your oil pan.
You have to crawl down there and look to find the source, which should not be too difficult. To fix it I would drain the oil pan, clean the surface with brake cleaner or acetone very well, and patch with
JB-Weld.

that is possible, although you would almost certainly have to drain the oil first. Otherwise, the oil would be trying to seep out while you were trying to apply the patch, and it would not stick.

As long as you can keep the oil from getting too low it should be fine and will not harm the engine. It will not suck dirt into the engine. You likely have a small crack in the oil pan, probably near the drain plug.

No problem. If anything it may slow down the leak a little bit.
Rex in Fort Worth

Thank you all who replied my message. I am not really a car man. I have not even change oil once myself. What you said here is pretty hard for me to do. (I can hardly go under the car, how could I even get the pan out?)I thought I could stop the leak by finding the hole and put something on the hole to cover it.

I am poor. I wonder if I can just leave it along and add oil when it is low. Will it harm the car/engine, because the leak will also suck dirts into the engine? I want to sell the car in within 1-2 years. It has 60k miles on it. It is a Honda Civic EX 2000.

My living area is very cold in winter. Will the oil leak affect anything in winter driving?

My local U-pull-it junk yard sells oil pans for $10.00

After you have verified that it is your oil pan, just go to a similiar such place near you and get one. I see no reason why you would want a new one, espically if it's cast (and presumably less prone to damage and warpage than a stamped one).

If indeed it needs a new sump due to impact damage, then this will be covered by your car accident insurance should you feel like claiming.

The way to knowledge is by necessity. Do you mean that you are not physically able to perform any manual labor? or the fact that as it is you can't get under the car? If it is the former, I am sorry that you are not capable of performing this simple repair... otherwise get a couple of jackstands, a jack, a basic metric socket set, an oil drain pan and repair this basic job on your own. Being poor as you claim to be knowing something about your car will save you HUGE $$$.

Trace the path of the oil by dust/dirt buildup. The higher, the more expensive. This is your diagnostic which normally runs $80-$100 flat fee. Remember you're looking for a hairline fracture, possibly on the oil pan. An invisiblility I can spot in minutes, impossible as you age.

The oil pan you can do yourself. A Chilton/Haynes manual shows you simple torque sequence.

hondaautomotiveparts.com sells parts. Helm.com sells exeptional liturature. I'm not affiliated to both.

First step is go buy yourself some car ramps.
Alternative - a floor jack and two jack stands, which you will need anyway if you have to change the pan.

Changing the oil pan is pretty low-tech and is done with simple hand tools.
Your exhaust pipe may run under the pan on that Honda. If so, you will need to disconnect the pipe from the manifold and let it drop so the pan can come off.
Nothing too hard there either. You will need an oil pan, oil pan gasket set, and a manifold-to-exhaust pipe gasket, and 4 more quarts of whatever brand oil the shop put it, unless you can catch the oil in a clean pan and re-use it.
Tools, parts and all, you should be able to do this for under $100(not sure what the pan will cost). To have it done at a shop would likely run $200-$300
Rex in Fort Worth

If this has one of those plastic pans and it's cracked then I'd rather change the pan also. I think that might be more than the poster is up for. The quick, cheap fix might be more to his liking. And it's safe because he can't get in any trouble.

Approximately 9/8/03 22:22, Chinadian uttered for posterity:

Hopefully you just put a major ding in your oil pan, fairly cheap by itself, the extra $$$ comes from needing to pull the engine up to get at it...which may not be necessary. Stay away from oil change shops for this type of repair. Actually staying away from most oil change shops is a good idea since they tend to hire folks not quite able to avoid putting filters on too tight, too loose, wrong filter, drain plug too tight [new oil pan] and few of them will take any responsibility for screwing up your car.

Go to a dealer or a japanese auto shop and ask them to take a look at it for you.... mainly because it could get worse and get expensive in a hurry...as in new engine.

the best thing to do is go to autozone and get a manual on your car and read it, then you will know everything there is to know about your car. Because the major costs of the whole ordeal is service. While an oil pan might only be 50 bucks.