November 28, 2015: An oil leak made its presence known during my Jekyll Island, Georgia over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was significant enough for me to smell it at times while stopped at a signal light. I crawled under the car to day and found a good bit of oil on the outside of the pan on the left side of the car.

The right side of the engine was dry. So I concentrated my search on the left side.

I don't suspect something like a valve cover gasket because I don't see any oil residue above or near the oil filter. I really, really hope the oil pan gasket is not the culprit. Fixing that is a nightmare. Hopefully the problem will be something not too difficult.

Driving the car resulted in oil being blown all over the undercarriage, including the hot exhaust. The fact it happened quickly and that I could smell it at various times gave me the indication that the leak should be significant enough for me to be able to see it.

I started the car and started looking.

After a bit of searching, I traced the leak to one of the oil pressure sending units. These screw-in sensors do occasionally fail over time. Replacing one of these shouldn't be too bad.

December 15, 2015: I ordered a new sensor and set time aside to install it. Removing/installing the old sensor is an easy process. Getting to the sensor, however, can be a challenge. The entire air cleaner assembly had to be removed to allow access to the sending unit. And even then, getting my hand in there looked like it was going to be fun.

The photo above shows the new oil pressure sending unit. This sensor controls the warning light in the instrument cluster, (there is another sending unit for the oil pressure gauge). Replacement is quite simple in theory.

Getting to the existing sensor proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. This sensor is mounted forward of the oil filter in a rather tight spot. The air cleaner assembly, mass airflow sensor, and intake hose had to be removed to make room.

The photo above is a closeup of the culprit. After many years and miles, the internal sealant in between the plastic and metal parts of the sensor can fail allowing a leak to develop, which is what happened in this case.

With the engine running, oil would drip from the body of the sensor onto anything located directly below it. Driving the car resulted in the dripping oil being blown over the undercarriage. Oil that gets on the hot exhaust will burn off.

After some effort, I removed the old sending unit. Oil was leaking from the body of the sender.

I installed the new sensor, put everything back together, and made sure the oil level was ok. All was well after the repair.