Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 06:33 pm, by: David Raill(Toolfan)
hiya, just being doing some regular maintenance on my V8, noticed drip starting from engine/transmission interface underneath. my thoughts are rear main seal? any idea or experience with this and repair $$. i'm guessing its the standard twine/rope look seal thats the problem. i have had some issues with last coupla services [they always overfill the oil!!] could be the cause of this. with all the experienced soarer owners here just wondering if this is crucial or something to live with. bewdy ta.
Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 07:10 pm, by: Mike Bradberry(Halflife)
David, be sure it is the rear seal before getting the job done. I thought I had that problem, but it turned out to be transmission pan seal. There is a small plate on the front of the gearbox on the bottom which you can screw off to check to see if the oil is coming into the bell housing.
Don Bagnall Moderator New Zealand SLK 230 Kompressor
I had this problem not so long ago - left it until I had the time to deal with it since although the oil leak is annoying and messy it's actually pretty minor usually. I simply smelt the oil to see if it was engine oil or transmission fluid, found it to be the latter, so I ordered a rear crankshaft oil seal, a new transmission filter and a tube of pan sealant. Got some help, plus a couple of days' off, dropped the transmission, changed the crankshaft seal and also the oil seal behind the torque converter which was looking suspect. Then I was also able to do a complete transmission oil change since I'd emptied out the torque converter. It's quite easy to pull out the crankshaft seal with a hooked wire - you just have to be careful not to scratch the shaft. The bell housing is now completely dry, and the transmission is way better after the filter and fluid change. Just takes time!!
Scott Wilkes TryHard Tasmania 92 TT Factory Manual
Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 09:30 pm, by: David Raill(Toolfan)
seamus, i have done the pcv change now and have yet to see any oil leak.....give it a couple days and i will take your advice if theres a show of fluid.[yours turned out to be trans fluid]i have had this car since 2001 and this is the first time i've had/noticed a leak in that time. i was a bit concerned with the service people continual overfilling of oil / guess its always better to do it yourself.