I noticed I had a couple of drops of oil on the driveway this morning and saw that it was coming down the rear of my oil pan. The oil pan bolts are also covered in oil. I figured it must be the oil pan gasket. After searching it seems as though I will have to drop the front axle to get the pan out.

Can anybody give me some insight on dropping the axle? How hard is it?

 

Before you do anything, clean the underside of your engine and tranny, and dry it off, and then go for a short drive, and inspect it. It's very possible that it could be a front or rear seal. It's good to know what the problem really is before you start throwing parts at it.

 

Thanks for the info. I recently had to have my tranny rebuilt. Could that of caused the problem if it is the rear seal? Where would it be leaking if it is the rear seal?

 

Does anyone know how far down does the front axle has to come? Am I going to have to take off the drive shafts on each side?

 

after cleaning the area check the right rear head. these are very very common to leak especially on a 99. They have a bad seal between the head and the head gasket. ford has an updated gasket to help improve it. Search here and you'll find alot of people have this and live with it. myself included.

 

Yeah, I did the head gaskets about a year ago. The leak is a lot lower than that. I have kept my eye on the heads and know it isn't from there.