Upper oil pan leak
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Tuned
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 460
Likes: 51
From: Washington state
Upper oil pan leak
I guess it’s my turn. I had read some of the posts about an upper oil pan leak. My 2016 F350 has 32,000 miles on it and has developed this leak. It goes in Monday to be fixed at the dealer under warranty. This leak must be a more common than I had been led to believe .They are going to loan me another truck to tow with. This time of the year I tow a horse trailer usually twice a week. I would only hope that this leak does not reoccur later in the trucks life. This is the first time it has been back to the dealer since purchased almost 2 years ago. It bothers me a little bit that they have to remove the transmission and transfer case to get at the upper oil pan. I guess I’ll get an oil change free on this one.
Senior User
Joined: May 2009
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Yeah this is mine being done at my dealer. Think it was in for 2 or 3 days. Started at 25000k, got bad enough by 50k that they fixed it. Has been solid since till the 75k I have on my 2015. They said it was from where the upper oil pan meets the timing cover.
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Tuned
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 460
Likes: 51
From: Washington state
Thanks Cappa for posting the picture. I’m glad your truck has been solid since the repair. There seems to be various theories as to why the leak happens. Some say the factory didn’t get the proper amount of silicone on the corners. I’m glad to know your truck has been solid since the repair. I put 100,000 miles on my 2011 at all I had done was the typical radiator repair and water pump. This truck is supposed be the last one that I buy for a while. The dealer hasn’t give me a timeline for how long it will take. As long as they give me something that will tow , I guess I’m fine with whatever it takes.
Senior User
Joined: Apr 2016
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Thanks Cappa for posting the picture. I’m glad your truck has been solid since the repair. There seems to be various theories as to why the leak happens. Some say the factory didn’t get the proper amount of silicone on the corners. I’m glad to know your truck has been solid since the repair. I put 100,000 miles on my 2011 at all I had done was the typical radiator repair and water pump. This truck is supposed be the last one that I buy for a while. The dealer hasn’t give me a timeline for how long it will take. As long as they give me something that will tow , I guess I’m fine with whatever it takes.
i had mine mine done last summer at ~22k miles. It took them three days split by a weekend after they got started on it. I dropped off the truck and it sat for a week before they actually started working on it. No problems with leaks since. After reading the warranty carefully, this oil pan leak should be covered under the 100k mile engine warranty.
Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 6,748
Likes: 118
From: Tallassee, ALabama
A master Ford diesel mechanic stated the 2014-2016 oil pan leaks seem to be on the increase. Wonders if Ford will extend the warranty any beyond the 100k.
https://www.thedieselstop.com/forums...3/#post4632570
https://www.thedieselstop.com/forums...3/#post4632570
Thread Starter
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Tuned
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 460
Likes: 51
From: Washington state
I wonder if they have figured out what caused the failure in just those engines built above 2014. Hopefully they’ve worked out a fix for the problem so that it does not happen again later.
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Thread Starter
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Tuned
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 460
Likes: 51
From: Washington state
I got my truck back yesterday in the early afternoon. I actually talked to the tech before he did the work. He told me he could replace the upper pan gasket in about two hours. I told him that’s not what I had read for the amount of time to do the repair on the Internet.He said the shop had done several and that was all the time it took. When I came to pick imy truck up he apologized and said that on the early production 6.7 diesel‘s The Upper pan gasket could be changed without pulling the transmission and transfer case. . He had to pull the transmission and transfer case. I have new antifreeze in the secondary cooling system and a fresh oil change with Motorcraft 5/40 synthetic. So far the leak seems to be fixed. He told me the secondary oil pan actually had a gasket and was not the gray silicone. They gave me an itemized list, but it didn’t have the price of what it would have cost if I would have had to pay for the repair. I’m just glad to have it back and it be repaired. I didn’t like that 2018 150 they gave me to drive.
New User
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 1
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4th time oil leak
I bought my 2016 f350 used with 16k on it. Shortly after the oil pan started leaking. Local Ford dealer first told me it wasn't leaking, it was from spillage. Took it back a few weeks later with the bottom of truck covered with oil so there was no denying the oil leak. They resealed the pan and checked it before installing trans. Took 4-5 tries and 2 weeks before leak was fixed. Truck has had to have this done different times all the same scenario all the way to 88k miles. Last time I told them I wanted the pan replaced which they did. Now it's at 160k and guess what we have once again. You guessed it, oil leaking from front left corner of oil pan. Called customer service and was told to get it to shop for diagnosis but it was out of warranty even though this has been and ongoing problem since 16k miles.
New User
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 3
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Diesel upper pans
Upper pans were never a problem on early modle 6.7 engines. Ford used an actual gasket recessed into the pan torqued properly these would often never leak over the life of the engine due to the extra bit of movement a gasketed seal would allow. In there infinite wisdom ford went to a rtv silicone sealant sometime in 2014. That is when the incidents of upper pan leaks became more frequent, most notably from the front corners of the pan. The block butts against the timing cover and this seam lays against the pan, this seam is where all the problems begin. The pans are also much thinner at the front then the back. Pans can warp as much as 0.005" over 6", there is no specification for deck warpage on an upper pan. There have been instances of smeared silicone from factory on trucks with as little as 10000 miles on them. Some take a little longer 40000 miles for a leak to become active. This is an on going issue there are no definitive answers as to why they leak the way they do. There are now 2018 trucks driving around with noted weeping at these seams. There is speculation that ford may bite the bullet and revert to a more expensive gasketed seal in the future, only time will tell.
Thread Starter
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Tuned
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 460
Likes: 51
From: Washington state
The tech that worked on my truck said the new replacement gasket for the Uppper oil was actually a gasket. Not silicone. Maybe they have changed their thoughts and when doing the repairs have gone to a gasket as it should’ve been in the first place.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 984
Likes: 8
Y'all are lucky. Mine started leaking around 36k and had it fixed this past January somewhere around 45k, it took the dealer over 2 weeks. Was looking the truck over today and it's leaking again at just under 55k.
New User
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 3
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Diesel upper pans
These labour times floating around on this topic are insane. The whole job takes 5 hours, you need to be super careful about smearing the silicone when reinstalling the pan. The majority of pans I've seen have had some sort of warpage on the deck, are dealers even checking for this before they throw it back in? No amount of sealant is going to work properly if the surfaces it's between are flawed from the beginning. It doesn't look good when you have a comeback on such an invasive procedure like that after having the truck for so long.
Junior User
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 57
Likes: 0
From: Severn, Maryland
Took mine (16 f250) in after doing a diy oil change and noticing a faint film of oil around the starter area. Koons ford of Annapolis service advisor stated that oil might have spilled there after a oil change, my SA seemed pretty clueless about the issues with the upper pan leaking on these things.. I told her how could oil spil there from the top if the fill neck is on the opposite side? No response, they're diesel tech put a dye in the oil and after some lack luster investigating they couldn't find a leak; I've driven the truck 300 miles since and don't see any seepage. Going to watch it carefully as my 3 yr/36k b2b is up in Jan 2019 - but I believe this is covered till 100k?
Now what I did notice when I looked yesterday is some faint film or seepage of transmission fluid at the very back of the trans pan right where the furthest most part of the pan meets the read crossmember, anyone experience this?
Truck only has 16k miles on the odometer.
Now what I did notice when I looked yesterday is some faint film or seepage of transmission fluid at the very back of the trans pan right where the furthest most part of the pan meets the read crossmember, anyone experience this?
Truck only has 16k miles on the odometer.