Unknown oil leak!! Please help!!

[TxusMSP]

I have a oil leak that I have no idea where it's coming from. Last time I had my car serviced by a mechanic it was for my harmonic balancer and my timing belt and that's when I asked the mechanic if he had noticed any leaks but he said no just from the oil pan a little. But I was looking underneath my car this past weekend (need a new WGA ha) and it doesn't seem to me like it's coming from the oil pan well the bottom part at least, but where it does leak from is like towards the front of the oil pan in that area, there's oil all on the bottom of the part in front of the oil pan not exactly from the oil pan itself. Is this where the oil cooler is located? Also I don't really smell any oil burning and my oil goes down almost a quart every 800-1100 miles I put on the car

 

[hornsfan10609]

Oil cooler is on the back of the block, has an O ring that leaks sometimes but I doubt that would cause it to leak that much. Small oil pan leak is common, my car does it. It's probably burning it, you just don't notice it.

 

[TxusMSP]

What causes the oil to burn? I'm just trying to find out so I know what parts im gonna have to save up for to fix it. Thanks for the help!!

 

[hornsfan10609]

It could be coming from the valve seals, turbo, cylinder blow-by, even a bad PCV can cause this.

 

[TxusMSP]

Ohh okay I see, well guess I'll have to get a shop to narrow it down for me, I think I might have bad turbo seals cause I brlieve I run out of oil more when I boost a lot

 

[Schwamm]

Just to chime in here...
I lost a lot of oil through bad valve stem seals, which caused oil to leak into the cylinders and down the front of the engine from the exhaust manifold (exhaust manifold was loose). I burned nearly a quart every 1,000 miles or so. I would sometimes see blue smoke on start-up. It seems to be a more common issue on these cars, so it might be worth checking out.

You can also look for oil residue in your intercooler piping, which would indicate a problem with the turbo. It's not too hard to start narrowing this down.