A friend of mine recently experienced a sudden and major oil leak. I'm hoping she shut 'er down before doing damage. I expect she did.

She said it sounded like a small explosion under the hood. She parked very soon thereafter.

So, of course, first thought is the oil pressure sending unit. However... this car has the accessory (3 bar I think) oil pressure gauge, and that (presumably VDO) sending unit. Are those senders prone to failure causing leakage? It is still in place, but I've not seen it.

And on that note, anyone know what wrench size removes them sending units?

Other possibility is a leak at the filter. The car did recently recieve an oil change. I'm assuming a competent, but not Volvo mechanic took care of that. The filter he took off was a Mann, and I've never seen those leave their rubber seals behind. But I suppose it's possible. The filter he put on is presumably, gah, a Fram. I know they don't have the best reputation, but I've not seen accounts of them leaking, unless perhaps over-tightened.

Besides sender and filter... anything else passenger side that it could be? I'll go armed with a regular 'light only' sending unit, and a filter. I can't think of anything else it could be, but would sure like to hear ideas...

And of course, it could be somewhere else and the fan blew it to the passenger side...

'82 K-jet DL non-turbo

thanks!
--
-Matt I ♥ my ♂