Originally Posted by kardiac
There is a plastic shield there protecting that area, however there is also a small (gash) in the plastic, and when placing my finger there I get oil... Just spoke with my service advisor and he states that if there was a hole in the oil pan, there would be oil all over the place, and the low oil light would been on a long time ago. I guess i'm please to here that news and hope the problem is not that serious. I will be taking it in tonight. I will keep you posted.
Kardiac, I don't know how mechanically inclined you are, but the plastic shield comes off real easy. (just 4 screws). I change my own oil the old fashion way and I've had it off at least 6 times, and I don't even jack my car up to do it.
Taking my car back to the dealer is a last resort option as far as I'm concerned because of all the "horror" stories that I've heard about most of them. So I usually try to diagnose a problem, and fix it myself before I'd let them get their greasy mitts on my car.
All you really need to do after you take the shield off, is look to see where the oil is dripping from (there should be a dirty trail) and maybe put a socket wrench on the drain plug bolt to see if it's tight. I'm betting that's where your oil leak is coming from, since you said that you detected just a small amount .