hey guys, as most already know, I have an 03 SS with an oil leak coming from the lower oil pan. Its not a serious leak, more like sweating, but still enough for me to be losing oil every so often. I had my car up on the hoist today and looked underneath in the passengers side near the harmonic balancer and found a bracket sitting above the tranny/motor mount (sandwiched between the subframe) covering the remaining bolts around the oil pan. My question is, will the subframe have to get dropped in order to remove this bracket and essentially remove the pan? If not is there an easier way to remove the pan? I'm thinking of doing this task at home in my garage with my creeper but if its easier on a hoist than I have no choice but to bring it in to work. If anyone has done this job before any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

Don't know if you've done this yet, but I would re-torque all the bolts and see if that stops the leak before attempting anything else. It's worked for me in the past.

 

hey pete thanks for your reply. I did want to mention however, that the bolts on the side of the pan (passengers side) are hiding in between the subframe mount where that bracket is.. and thats where most of the oil is coming from.. the side. any tips on those?

 

You should be able to get the pan off. Been a while since I've done one.

 

Without seeing the bolts I can't really say but 'rocking the engine forward' might help get a little clearance:



Remove the dog bone engine mounts, and with the car in park, open the driver door, push and pull the car with one foot on the e-brake. The car will rock, the engine will move with the car after a little whilewhen you see the engine moving forward just step on the e-brake, with it well timed it should hold there

 

i looked at mine to see what you meant, removing everything in the way might be the only way

 

I was thinking maybe I could get away with just dropping the subframe from the rear removing the two bolts just to give me enough clearance to drop the pan.. I dont know for sure though, this seems like a pain in the *** of a job to do. Maybe Ill swap out the original sway bar with a solid one too while Im at it. Thanks for your help guys.