I went to change my oil yesterday, and while I was under the car, I noticed that some parts appeared to have been coated in oil of some sort (prior to actually changing anything myself). I'm assuming it's motor oil given the color. It was relatively crusted over, and I've never had any oil drops in the garage, so either it's slowly leaking or left from a previous change that someone else did.
Attached are a couple of (crappy phone) photos. I'm curious if someone can tell me:
1) Could oil have gotten here during a previous oil change by spilling out onto the reinforcement plate?
2) What part am I looking at here, that sits right above the reinforcement plate and is coated in oil?
Thanks for any and all insight.
