Hi all,

Starting this week, my car drives weird. When I speed up, I can hear whirling sound when it’s on gear 2 and up. Today, I went down underneath of my car and found areas around transfer box are wet. I don’t think it’s from the oil filter housing, those areas did not show significant signs of oil leak, and the engine oil levels seems fine. I did snap some pictures












. Help me troubleshoot, appreciate yall!

 

That's pretty classic oil cooler gasket leak location for finding the oil dripping down. You said it's clean at the oil filter adapter, fair enough, that would also be suspect. Are you familiar with the external oil cooler mounted on the front side of the engine (front bumper side). I'd check that area next. The oil cooler housing has gaskets for both oil and coolant, coolant being used to cool the oil. These are a square face gasket that curl up with heat cycling and begin leaking. This leak is frequently discovered when the oil dripping down falls on the exhaust pipe and the smell of burning oil enters the cabin. Note that the oil on your exhaust hanger bracket is basically that same location for the origin of the smell.

I'd suppose back side of oil pan or rear of valve cover might also be suspect but less likely.

EDIT: Are some of these taken with a selfie camera such that the images are mirrored, or am I getting spacially disoriented? I still think oil cooler is good idea to check. If a manual trans, could be trans gear oil, looks too thin though?