I'm coming up on bumper to bumper expiration on my 22 and pulled the lower panel to check the condition under the car. I found an area between the engine and transmission that has a little oil seepage. There is some dust and dirt stuck to the seepage and some wet oil I can touch with my finger. It smells and feels like engine oil. I mentioned it to my mazda dealer, they pulled the panel, acknowledged it is oil said it is normal.

I accept the evaluation of my Mazda dealer. My question for you all is what is that black part that seems to seep oil?

I recorded a 90 second video showing the orientation and location as well as touching the oil. The area starts to be shown at :25
https://youtu.be/vvgVHzQNHCw?feature=shared

 

Ok first this a good video. One of the better ones form a DIY!

So if you were able to get that far under to take the video then time to get out the simply green and pressure washer or hose and wash the underside of the engine. The unfortunate thing that I see is that the leak where ever it is coming from in a minor leak but has been going on for awhile. So unless you clean the engine really well it is going to be much more challenging to guess where it is coming form both physically there and defiantly not on a forum on the internet.

You might as well pull the engine cover and wash the top of the engine and engine compartment as we..
Don't worry I wash mine every 4 months or sooner and your engine is easier then mine to do. I have many more electronics and a CAI that I need to wrap when I wash it. You don't! LOL

If you want to see and are interested I have at least 2 times likely more pictures of washing the engine compartment with a hose and exterior washing soap with lots of soapy water all over the engine. Also there is a short video of pressure washing the under carriage transmission and engine.
Year ago I found a slight oil smear and never did find the actual cause. I just went under the engine and snugged all the fastener wherever I could reach to. I guess one of them was the cause because not a leak since?

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Oh and that part is not where the oil is coming form and is a flywheel inspection cover. You can pop it iff and have a look inside.

 

The dealer said the engine leaking oil of some kind is "normal"? Interesting.

 

I am not sure and really I understand your semi dislike of dealerships based on many responses so why not just say it was how it was interrupted? I bet money it was not on the service history information now attached to his Mazda!

BTW you did read I had small amount showing on my engine and it is not uncommon. You own Mazda may have it? When was the last or for you the first time you dropped your plastic chassis cover and looked at the bottom side of your engine? LOL

Lets not go down this path of things that you don't work on and have experience with pleeeeeeze!!!!

 

Speaking of... I recently did my engine and chassis cleaning and this day actually replaced my plastic covers. In the first few pictures you can see where the black plastic asked about goes. Mine is lost in my garage somewhere. lol

The rest is as of today with 54895 miles in most every driving condition including a few on dirt and or gravel roads.

 

Thank you all for the input. I will be reading up on that cleaning via your links Callisto and figure out things best I can then maybe take it back if it returns more precisely. My dealer was very friendly about it, showed it to me to make sure it was what I meant. They said if it increases or changes to being it back. My paperwork had "customer concern oil leak between engine and transmission" followed by "unable to verify customer concern light seepage by rear seal no drips on shield no problem at this time".

Holy crap that is a clean underbody Callisto kudos.

 

Thank you. I was going to post these yesterday but thought it was not on topic. But after your responses wanted to show you that I do in fact wash and detail my engine compartment routinely. I even have my ringcam recording me.
I forgot to turn it off when I was washing lol