I have a 97 850R wagon and I did a routine tune up this past weekend. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, pollen filter, fuel filter, replaced the power steering fluid, brake fluid, and antifreeze/coolant. A couple of months ago, I did the trans fluid, and about 2 weeks ago I did an oil change. I still need to do the serpentine belt and timing belt, but I'm putting that aside for a little while.

Anyway, enough with the background... while doing the tune up this weekend, I did something that I'm not sure was such a smart idea in retrospect.

After taking the wire cover off of the top of the head to expose the spark plug wires, I decided that I wanted to clean the oil from all of the little cavities there-- oil that had leaked from the filler neck. I used some degreaser on it being careful not to spray it on the wires or near the plug boots. However, some of the degreaser ran down the back side of the engine on the right rear corner while facing the engine (driver's side). Ever since then, it has been dripping oil. It seems like a LOT of oil.

The oil seems to be coming from a "hole" where you can see the starter gear from under the engine. I wiped it off the underside of the engine twice-- Monday night and Last night (Tuesday). The oil seems rather old. Older than the oil looks on the dipstick.

I am concerned that I have somehow damaged a seal with the degreaser. Should I be? Do you suggest adding a leak dye to the engine oil? Any suggestions on brand of dye if that's the direction I should go?

PS -- I bought the CarChip E/X from Davis. I'm impressed. It allowed me to reset the check engine light and was right on with the diagnosis -- #4 cylinder misfire. During the Tune-up, when I pulled the #4 wire off of the distributor cap, there was a TON of corrosion in the boot. Plus, I'm a geek and like to look at telemetry from the engine just for the heck of it.