Any major differences between all model years?

[Face_Plant]

Originally Posted by MCTeeJ

lol I would consider 2013-2015 to be where most of the issues I've mentioned occur. Are you positive it's coming from the oil pan directly?

On my timing cover leak the car basically only "sweats" oil very slowly from a small crevice on the bottom. However, it mixes in with dirt and road grime and makes a nice mixture of filth on the skid pan. After about 20k or so with the small leak the skid pan was black lol. Cleaned it off and it's stayed relatively clean since. That's the main reason I haven't gotten to it.

I haven't looked into the leak at all yet, so I'm not sure if it's coming from the oil pan, timing cover, or somewhere else. I just noticed that the oil pan had an oily coating while I was removing the skid plate the other day. It seemed too slick/thin to just be road grime, which is why I jumped to the conclusion that something is leaking and running down the oil pan. It has been extremely humid and rainy here for the past week or so, so it's possible condensation was accumulating on the oil pan and thinning out any road grime, making it seem like oil.

If it is infact a leak, then it's not bad enough (yet) to require immediate action. Both sides of the skid plate were clean, there's no spots on my driveway, and the only real problem so far is a somewhat greasy oil pan that might need to be wiped off every time I change the oil.

[Tcoat]

You can see the recognized issues here https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21868 The TSBs will tell you the model years and VIN range where that known issue may exist. Not every car in those ranges had the issues though. There are many out there that have been trouble free.
There have been a handful of other issues reported on here but they impact a very small minority so need to be considered very carefully.