About 4 months ago I had my rear main seal replaced by the dealer, just before my VIP warranty ran out. Yesterday I went to my local indy mechanic for some other work, and he noticed that the seal still seemed to be leaking. It was not leaking very much at all, perhaps a better way to describe it would be as "wet". However, my indy mechanic says that as far as he is concerned, that area should be *dry*. I was wondering what you folks on the board thought. Is any amount of leakage/seepage acceptable? Or should I go back to the dealer and have them do it again?

All advice is greatly appreciated.

I ran into the same problem with my 95 and was told by 3 different mechanics that it was a rear seal problem. Having real confidence in mechanics I finally had a 4th mechanic looked at it and indicated that the problem was not a rear seal at all. I lived with the problem for over a year because I did not want to pull the motor.

When you look at the block just under the cover where the oil cap is, is a rubber/plastic hose. It can melt and slowly leak oil giving the impression of being a rear seal leak. It is worth checking out.

Robo,

How can the indy mechanic tell if it's fresh oil seeping out, or just "old" oil that wasn't cleaned out thoroughly, still making its way out the hole. Perhaps a flourecent dye could be added to the oil? If it is indeed fresh oil, I would be all over the techs who installed the rear main seal to replace it under warranty...

Good Luck!
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RussB in Ct. - '96 855T- '91 940T - '93 850GLT (R.I.P. 6-16-02)