I have a 1997 dodge dakota sport. Just recently i have noticed major oil markings in the drive way, and yesterday I walked out to a big puddle. Now my beauty is parked.

The oil is coming from what looks like a nipple end in the back of the truck, to the left of the gas tank above where the drive shaft is. It is dripping right out, and looks like there was a cap or something that has fallen off. The nipple can be seen through a small square opening, about 1 1/2 inch square. my question is, what is this, why is it leaking, and what to do to stop the leakage other then plugging it with somthing?

thanks for any help!!!! I can post a picture later tonight.

 

Does anyone know where I could maybe find a parts diagram to try and figure out exactly what is missing here?

Again there is a plug towards the back of the truck dripping what appears to be oil.

Thanks again

 

get a haynes or chilton manual. its kind of hard to diagnose something without even being able to see the problem. take a picture if you can and put it on here. are you sure its engine oil and not transmission fluid?

 

what color is the oil?

 

Picture would be great.
There really isn't anything around there. Well, it looks like the vent for the rear axle is above the pumpkin (rear axle housing), but I don't see how that would be leaking oil.

It could be transmission fluid, but than it should also be leaking out of the rear of the transmission (or transfer case on 4WD) as well as POSSIBLY the rear part of the rear driveshaft.

 

Well, I did find the problem and it was 100% non mechanical, and completely my own stupidity. So for the sake of a good laugh, here you go:

I left it parked for one day and noticed nothing leaked much over the evening. I checked the oil and it wasn't drained, so I really started scratching my head. I forgot about it for awhile, and started working on cleaning my boat in the drive way. I have a storage container in the bed, filled with a bunch of stuff, one of which is wooden blocks to help hold my trailers in place. When I pulled the blocks out of my storage bin, they were dripping in oil!!!! A 'no way' came from my mouth as I remember keeping old oil in there for disposal, just never got rid of it. A little more digging, I found a container had broke open, leaked and filled the bottom of the container with oil, which had been draining itself through the holes drilled in my bed to hold down the container.

needless to say, it was quite a mess to clean, but I took care of it in 30 minutes at a local wash.

Thanks for all your replies though! I figured for that, you at least deserved to know what happened. lol.

Take care all