Oil looking stripe on underside of hood / GM 3.4L

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I have a Chevy Venture van, 3.4L with 180k miles. After returning from a 400 mile drive last week I was surprised to open the hood and see about a one inch wide stripe of what I initially thought was motor oil, up on the underside of the hood. It's not leaking down on the pavement below the area but there was an oily area below the harmonic balancer (on sub frame) so I believed it must have been coming from the crankshaft oil seal. So I replaced the front crankshaft oil seal and cleaned up the hood area yesterday and drove the vehicle about 5 miles last night.

I went out this morning and opened the hood only to find a fresh strip on the underside of the hood again! Looking at it more closely now, it's the color and consistency of old heavy motor oil. However, my motor oil is a clean honey colored. It's not coolant as I'm running G05 which is light amber and very thin. I checked power steering and transmission fluids and it's far too dark to be either of their colors. (I'm using a white paper towel to test these appearance differences and nothing is matching)

The serpentine drive belt does not have any of this substance on it, so it does not appear to be something that the belt is picking up and throwing upward.

Now, I'm left thinking it may be the water pump since it's mounted high up and is right below this streak line. It's an aftermarket pump that was installed about 50,000 miles ago. Does a water pump have grease in the bearing?, and perhaps the pump seal is going bad. This could allowing a small amount of coolant to mix with the grease and when it exits from the pump weep hole, it is being spun upward by the pump pulley. The mixture of the pump grease with the coolant would have this unusual appearance and would explain why it doesn't match any of the other fluids of lubricants.

Does a water pump bearing have grease, and does the above make sense that it may indeed be the early signs of a water pump that is failing? There are no unusual noises at this time...
 
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That happened to me too. It was the high pressure power steering hose. Leaked down a little onto a pulley and got flung onto the hood above. As a precaution, mechanic opened up the valve cover to inspect the timing belt. Good thing it was dry, otherwise it would've needed replacement too.
 
The AC compressors of years gone by also would leave an oil streak across the hood and other adjacent areas.None of the Toyotas or Hondas I have owned for the last thirty some years did this. Not one evidence of even a seep out of the compressor seal.
 
Originally Posted By: Yah-Tah-Hey
The AC compressors of years gone by also would leave an oil streak across the hood and other adjacent areas.None of the Toyotas or Hondas I have owned for the last thirty some years did this. Not one evidence of even a seep out of the compressor seal.


GM was very slow to copy the japanese seals
 
Thanks for the good suggestions. I carefully checked out the A/C compressor and the power steering system. I couldn't find anything so I elected to pull the water pump pulley by default. As soon as I it came off, the underside of the pulley was soaked and I could tell it was the color I was looking at. I think all the dirt and grime made it look like motor oil. Also, there was movement in the bearing that I missed when I spun it yesterday.

I went and purchased a new water pump and got it installed this afternoon. The leak / spray has stopped.
 
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