Pontiac Repair: Oil Pan gasket-2001 Pontiac Grand Prix, pan gasket, pontiac grand prix

Question
Hi,
Today I noticed I have a series of oil drops on the garage floor.  When I took the car to get the oil changed I was told the oil pan gasket needs to be replace and it entails pulling the whole motor and will be very expensive. Will you advise me please?  Is it possible to stop the leak just by  tightening  the screws holding the oil pan on??

Answer
Hi Sue:

Well it depends on what engine is in this car a 3100 or a 3800 engine. The 3100 engine if indeed it is just the oil pan leaking it can be done in the car just the engine sub frame has to be removed to replace that gasket. It's about a 6 hour job plus the parts. if it is a 3800 engine I would be suspect of just an oil pan gasket it it's near the rear of the egine where the transmission mounts there is a cover on the back of the engine that the gasket fails and it appears like a oil pan gasket and in fact it's not then you wind up still having a leak! If that's the case then the transmission has to be reomove along with the oil pan to fix the leak That is a more labor intensive job like 8-10 hours and parts are a bit more. So neither of these egines need to be removed to fix the leak. If it is just the oil pan gasket on the 3800 engine it's about the same time as the 3100 engine. One tip on this engine when the gasket it replaced along the sealing surface of the gasket a "bead" of silicone should be put on each side before it's put back onto the engine. That way it will not leak for a long while. And to the second part No ther is nothing you can do to stop it short of repairing the problem. Good luck :)