Rear mail seal goes bad at 18,000 miles? Advice needed please!

[FRANK]

Rear seals are cake...pull the pan and remove the main cap or retainer and remove and reinstall. Rear seals can be a pain if the motor is real old and is an old rope seal. Getting them out is usually harder than getting them in. If he is a tuner you have nothing to worry about. Relax man. The slace cylinder is also no biggie.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I suspected mine was leaking after only 2000 miles after a Arrow rebuild. The local Dealership ordered the gaskets and stuff from doing a visual inspection with the dye in the oil. The inspection was all done with the tranny in place also. We assumed to much since there was oil everywhere. This winter I had the car down to Tom Sessions to do the recall stuff on my 98. He actually found that a couple of the oil galley plugs on the rear of the engine were leaking and not the rear main seal. His willingness to go the extra effort to pull the tranny solved this situation.

 

[MarineGuns]

Hoosier Daddy make a good point about the oil galley plugs and I hope the tuner checks them.

Seals can and will go bad. I don't think replacing them is a sign of problems to come. I would, however, check the clutch to make sure it has not become contaminated by oil.

Howard

 

[joe117]

When I got my car last year I took it to a dealer to get everything fixed that needed fixing. They said the rear main was bad. I never saw any leaking. I told them to replace it if it needed replacing. They said they did it.
So, if mine was really leaking and if they really replaced it, that would mean that mine went bad. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Ron]

On GENII's at least, rear main seal replacement requires transmission removal as the seal is part of a aluminum retainer assembly that slides over the end of the crank, rather than being placed above and below.

Odds are that if the oil leak is significant, the clutch disc is contaminated and will require replacement. Chatter is the result of even a little bit of oil on your disc. You can see the oil weeping thought two flywheel holes near it's center. If it's there, it's on the disc.

No reason why replacement won't fix it if that is truly the source of the leak. In my case, after two rear main seal replacements, the dealer finally figured out it was the cam block plug. Occured at about 8,000 miles. 1,000 miles of chatter later, they had to replace the clutch disc & pressure plate assembly.

Remember to use new flywheel bolts when re-installing the flywheel. There is a TSB on it.

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

And you'll stay happy! It sounds like you did good on your deal...props to your friend for realy being a friend!

I knoe my first little oil leak really bummed me out, but I (like others) took the car to Tom Sessions and he helped me through it.

For us who are not mechanically incllined (like Frank), it is a big deal. I NEVER had a problem with the car. On our way doen to VA from RI, we stopped by some friend's house in PA and I took the car out of the trailer for rides. And did I give RIDES!!! Put the car away and headed to VA. When I took it out in VA there was a spot...very small, but it looked like gallons to me!!! LOL

I don't even give it a second thought now....and you shouldn't either. Congratulations and have fun!

 

[FRANK]

A drip? Jeez it sounded like it was dripping...a little drip is no big deal after a ride. A drip doesn't mean the seal is bad. Relax and have a some Hi-C. It'll make you feel better! Either way, he took care of it.