I have a small oil leak, and the point of origin seems to be the oil pan gasket near the downpipe. When I first installed the DP, it was rubbing against the oil pan, but that's been fixed -at least it seems to be fixed with the car sitting on ramps. Anyway, I'm thinking of putting a short section of heat wrap between the DP and oil pan.

My question is whether or not it's possible that the DP being too close to the oil pan can cause a leak, or should I be looking elsewhere?

 

They are sealed pretty well from the factory. You can almost have it laying on the pan and it won't cause the seal to come apart. I would probably look at the gasket for the oil return or the bolts maybe vibrating loose from the DP touching the pan. Just a thought. Without pics its hard to tell.

 

check your accual oil return line... when i changed my downpipe i dont know how but the oil return line cracked in the middle of the line and it dripped down to where the two bolts bolt on the pan..i changed the bolts and sealed them, got a new gasket and at the end it was the oil line...