Hey everyone. I was under my Evo yesterday tracking down an exhaust leak and I noticed that the floor pans are covered in some type of oil, I think. Looks like this.




Nothing is physically dripping and it feels kind of sticky. So whatever that stuff is, it goes from the front of the floor pan all the way to the back on both sides. It stops right at the firewall (firewall is dry top to bottom) and there is none of it in the driveshaft tunnel above the driveshaft. My engine compartment is 100% dry. The trans and t-case are 100% dry. None of the u-joints on the driveshaft look to be shooting out grease. I literally cant find anything up front that shows signs of leaks, from above or below, engine running or off. So my next thought was the heater core but the carpet is dry as can be and it doesnt have that sweet smell inside the car.

I dont drive the car in the rain, its kept in the garage and I probably have only put 1000 miles on it over the last couple of months. I know for a fact that it did not look like that last time I was under the car doing some work. The one thing I can say is that I can smell coolant from the outside of the car from time to time but cant locate a leak. The overflow never gets low either. Has anyone run into this same odd issue before?

 

That's the factory undercarriage rust protection goop

 

I would like to say you are correct but I was looking through some old pictures and those little brownish drops werent there. The undercoating was definitely there but it didnt look wet like it does now.

I am assuming by factory rust protection stuff you are talking about something like Fluid Film? Not the actual rubberized stuff?

 

That's def the factory undercoating. Mine has drops formed as well and looks just like yours. Likely due to hot climate making the coating get more gooey vs solid.

 

Ya well it has been pretty hot out lately so I guess I can see that. Still is just odd to me. Definitely going to check out a couple of my evo buddies cars to see if they look the same just for piece of mind. Thanks for the info though.

 

if you touch it... is it oil?

 

It's not really oily. It's pretty slimy if I touch it but it does not leave an oil residue on my fingers. If I touch it, my fingers do turn black but it seems like it's just the coating deteriorating and sticking to my fingers. There is no trace of oil left behind, just nasty, sticky, black stuff like old undercoating.

Here is another picture. You can see some spots seem to be wet and other spots are dry. That is what is leaving me confused.



Also notice that my lovely wires are dry as can be. They have been there for, I'm going to say, 8 months now. So I would figure if something was leaking, they would have fluid on them too.