Alright, so I've been trying to sort this out for a couple of weeks now and have gotten so much mixed information that I'm a bit at a loss for where to go.

First off, can anyone give me a conclusive value for what the engine oil capacity is for the 30v 2.8? My owners manual tells me 5.5 quarts with a filter change, the dealer told me 6.5 quarts, and no searches through the rest of the forums or google have been able to confirm one or the other. The reason I ask is because after my most recent change, 5.5 quarts barely registered on the dipstick, so I added the last .5 quart and on getting to operating temperature, the level came up just barely to the minimum line, so is the book lying to me, the dealer lying to me, or do I possibly have the wrong dipstick in there? The car's seen about 4 different owners so who knows if one of them mixed up dipsticks or something haha

Now that that's out of the way, I also appear to have an oil leak; not a major one, nothing drips down and hits the driveway, but its leaking no less and I can't figure out where from. Also following the above mentioned oil change, I had everything on the underside wiped down; almost looked showroom clean down there. The next day after the change, everything was still clean. The second day: the whole oil pan, front to back, side to side, was coated in the fresh oil I had just put into the thing. As it was coated all across, I couldn't tell if it came from the front of the motor, or one of the sides.

My first thought was valve cover gaskets; my second thought, the thin, rubber seal around the oil fill hole (not the one that's on the cap itself, the one that actually surrounds the hole and stays attached to the valve cover) as it is visibly damaged. The only problem I have with thinking that is the source, is the fact that for how much oil seems to be coating the underside, it had a really long way to travel, going from the bottom of the motor against gravity to the fill hole, splashing out of there, running down the side of the block, not following any number of paths across other hoses, wires and parts, and proceeding to collect on the pan. So I give more probability to the VCGs.

I then got talking to the parts guy at my dealer and had it suggested that it could be the cam tensioner seals, but I'm not sure how to get a good eye on those to see if they're showing signs of leakage so I decided to ask your opinions on the likelihood of that.

I've also considered maybe the gasket on the pan itself is bad, but as far as I can think, the only way I'd be able to verify that would be to get underneath again, wipe it all clean, and keep watching it to see if it starts seeping out from the edges of the pan itself, and well I just don't have time to give my oil pan a staredown for a few hours lol

Any suggestions on a better way to source where this is coming from? Like I said, its not a rapid leak, its not collecting fast enough to drip off anywhere while its sitting, but enough to just coat things and then fly off when I get on the freeway so I'm not sure where to look to know what to replace.

Much thanks in advance for the suggestions

 

check Blauparts.com it will help for sure.
also check the rear cam seals on each side. its just a lil round rubber/metal seal.
the cam tensioner seals if leaking, for the driverside one its on the front and you'll need to just peak thru from the timing cover pushed away. and the passenger side one is on the rear of the head.

hope that helps.
i also have an oil leak. i'm pretty sure is the axle seal but i'm not sure how to replace them