Leaky Car

I had been noticing what looked like fresh oil spots on the driveway for the last few days, but had chocked it up to either just water from A/C, or maybe someone dumped out a soda on the ground.  But yesterday when I moved Sarah’s car before going to work, I put my finger in the spot and it was fresh, wet, and very slippery.  I thought, Oh no!  I ended up calling our car guy to see if I could get it in and just have them take a look at it and tell me whether or not I should be concerned.  Luckily he told me that Sarah could just call and bring it in and they could just take a quick look.

I thought that when I got home from work I would crawl under the car and see if I could see where it was leaking from and at least I would be able point them to where they should be looking so it wouldn’t take too long.  I didn’t see anything though under the car out on the street, but I thought that maybe it was because the car had just been sitting and maybe the engine needed to run.  So I thought I would look under the car after Sarah moved it back into the driveway for the night so I could get an idea where I should be looking based on the spots already on the ground.

I went out around 8:00 while it was still light outside and didn’t see anything new.  I grabbed a flashlight and shined it up underneath, and again, I didn’t see anything fresh.  I went back inside and thought I should call and just cancel the appointment so that they weren’t expecting Sarah to show up.  But when I got up in the morning and went to move Sarah’s car so I could go to work, I found a new, fresh spot of oil under the car, right near the right rear tire.  My first thought was that it was leaking brake fluid.  I popped the hood and looked at the reservoir and the level of brake fluid was down a little bit from where it normally is, so I figured that yep, something is leaking from a rear brake line.

After Sarah was done there, I was told that there was nothing wrong.  There were no leaks, at least nothing more than normal.  I still contend the spots I am seeing on the driveway are new so I’ll have to keep an eye on them.  We did get a bonus however.  When Sarah was leaving to have her car looked at, the Service Engine light came on.  This was brand new, so she asked our guy to check it out as long as she was there.  The errors were something new we have never had before, something about a Park/Shift switch I think, and a lean fuel mix error.  He wasn’t sure why they came on because by the time she got there, he didn’t see anything wrong, so he just reset the alarm.  Just something else to keep an eye on I guess.  Maybe it is time to finally get rid of that money pit!