2008 with Oil Leak

Oil pump reseal - most likely culprit. I had the same issue. Thought it was the spool gaskets, as mentioned above, but it was not. It is essentially the TB job, then you have to drop the exhaust and oil pan to remove the oil pump. Not really hard, if you can handle the TB job, but tedious, as you have to clean all the mating surfaces, then use HondaBond to reseal the oil pump and oil pan. Mine started leaking shortly after I did my TB at 200k for the second time, so I had to do it all over again to do the oil pump reseal. Since I do all the work on my Pilot, and plan on keeping it as long as possible, it was worth the extra work. I just wish I had known it was a common enough issue, I would have done it with the 2nd TB job at 200k.

Here are two links that I used which helped in understanding what was involved.

This one from the Ridgeline forums with good picutres: Oil Pump Reseal (Pictures)

And this one is a good time lapse video:
When dropping the exhaust, I only removed the 6 nuts holding the J-Pipe to the front and rear cats, then I dropped the rest of the exhaust from there backwards by using silicone lube spray on the rubber exhaust hangers, which hold the rest of the exhaust to the car from the cats back. You may need to replace some of them, as I had a bunch that were badly cracked, and were likely going to fail at some point. I replaced them all. I didn't want to mess with any rusted bolts/nuts removing the J-pipe from the 3-way cat and remaining exhaust pieces.

One difference between the Acura video and what is needed with the Pilot, you do not have to "raise" the engine to get the oil pan off like he did. The Pilot has enough room if you are careful dropping the pan past the frame cross bar.

It looks almost IDENTICAL to the leak patterns I had. I never noticed oil on my driveway, however, when doing oil change the entire back and passenger side of the oil pan was oily. If the spool valve gasket goes, it will likely leak A LOT of oil, not just lightly weeping. In addition, the oil pump is likely leaking/seeping oil much higher then where the oil pan gasket is, and leaking down from above. Remember, the oil pan attaches to the oil pump on the passenger side, right behind the crank pulley. Mine was leaking from behind the spool valve, which is why I thought it was that gasket, and figured I would try that first. It wasn't. After taking everything apart, it was crystal clear that the oil pump was seeping. I was most worried that it would be leaking onto the TB, as I saw evidence of seepage near the hydraulic tensioner. It never got in behind the covers.

I never noticed an appreciable amount of oil loss between oil changes. My Pilot is normally 1/2 quart low, at most, when I change the oil, usually every 6k miles.

Could you get by without tackling this? Sure, as long as you are not squirting oil all over the place. Weepage you can probably live with, if you are only going to keep the vehicle for another year or two. For me, I like working on my cars, and this was a satisfying challenge for me.

SunnyTeresa said:

Just like to update that after continued intermittent leaking, the oil pan gasket blew, and I am having the oil pan resealed and new gaskets.

Did the TB/water pump last year, anything else I should have done at 130,000 miles while my mechanic does this?

Thanks.

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Just concerned with the oil pump bolts leaking.

Oil inside the lower valve cover is concerning if it could ever get to the timing belt. Not to scare you, your belt can be inspected through the front top cover to see if it has oil on it. But yes, I've had to reseal oil pump, oil pan, replace oil hole gasket, cam and crank seals on two V6s recently.