My 98 s70 has a fairly large oil leak on the drivers side of engine. I have been unable to locte where this is coming from but will wash and look under it... it also has an idling problem.. it idles high and then low and sometimes normal and will stall out once in a while.. I was wondering if both these issues could be caused by a clogged pcv system and also wondering if this could cause the yellow check engine light to come on? I would like to know where the pcv system is located as well... please help me resolve this issue!

 

if you cant just find the leak chances are that it would be coming from the block either above the trans, for a leaking cam seal. or if it comes out the small hole at the bottom of the trans bell housing (a peep hole that you can see the flywheel teeth, this might have a plug, or cover on it) it would be a leaking output shaft seal, or rear main seal. are you sure what fluid it is too, you could have the input shaft on the trans be leaking too and it would come out of that hole i described. also pcv problems should be expected.... i do them often. this will only help "push" the oil out of the engine's seals. as far as the idle goes, what miles are on it, and if my memory serves me correct you have a "older" ignition system, on with a distributor cap, and spark plug wires? if you do i would suspect that oil might be leaking out of the cam seal that drives the distributor, this would make missfires when the oil fouls up the contacts for the cap and rotor.

 

I am fairly confident that it is oil and not tranny fluid... I have 160k on the engine right now. It is hard to determine where the leak is since the entire under carriage is covered with oil. You are correct, this model has the distributor cap .. now the car does not misfire though. It simply dies. Would that still be an issue with the cam seal leaking out?

 

What is the easiest way to tell the difference and determine what fluid is leaking. (I have never worked on cars but decided I need to learn )