A few inches from the top of the engine is a small oil leak

MILLSMABER

MEMBER
2003 CHEVROLET MALIBU
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
77,000 MILES

When looking at he front of the engine, on the drivers side a few inches from the top of the engine is a small oil leak. There is also black smoke from the oil coming from the exhaust. Also, the car overheats occasionally until I turn on thre A/C or heat and the arm on the thermostat drops back down quickly. Then theres a fait squeeling noise that sounds like the steering fluid is low or the belts are dry, but it's filled up and we've sprayed the belts. Can they al be related? What do you think?

1 Reply

SQM

MECHANIC
6,383 POSTS

Hello,

It sounds like you might be talking about oil leak from the valve cover.
Can you upload a picture? It will surely be helpful.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-is-leaking-oil

Black smoke out of the tailpipe is due to the engine running too rich. This can be due to faulty oxygen sensor, bad fuel pressure regulator, shorted fuel injectors etc.

Here is a helpful guide that covers the typical issues for the black smoke:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-black-smoke

All the symptoms you are mentioning may not be related but separate issues.

It will be best to take one step at a time and address each issue.

I have attached the valve cover gasket replacement procedure below.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you.

Images (Click to make bigger)