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Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

posted by  Himi on  Fri Jan 7 09:15 CST 2005
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last visit: Mon Jan 4 06:16 CST 2010
[RELATED]

I have an 97 850R, with 78,000 Miles the car. I looked under the car before I changed to synthetic and not a drop of oil anywhere. I changed to Mobil 1 and 500 miles later there is oil all over the place and not to mention the stench of burning oil raining onto the exhaust. I attached this picture from a previous post to show where the oil is dripping from, it is also coming out from the back of the engine where you can see a few teeth of the flywheel.

What should I do or what else can it be?? (besides shelling out the coil for a rear main seal job) Change back to Dino??

I know it is not the turbo return line because I wedged some paper towels at the bottom of the turbo and at the return line into the engine and no oil was on the rag. Placed some rags at this weep hole and below the hole where you can see the flywheel and these rags were soaked with oil.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

http://community.webshots.com/photo/34779031/147485335ScaLzu

Himi








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    Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

    posted by  someone claiming to be Dave on  Thu Jan 13 07:28 CST 2005 [RELATED]

    I have a 1995 850 turbo with 140K miles. I made the switch to Mobil 1 and immediately noticed an increase in the amount of oil leaking from the engine. I recently made the switch to Valvoline High Mileage oil and have noticed a significant decrease in the amount of oil on my garage floor. As another poster mentioned, the high mileage oils have seal conditioners designed to extend the life of the engine seals. So far, it seems to be working for me.








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    Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

    posted by  Rludwick on  Fri Jan 7 20:08 CST 2005
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    last visit: Sat Aug 31 16:10 CST 2013
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    You could always try running a treatment with auto rx ( www.auto-rx.com ) before resorting to seal surgury. I've had great luck with that stuff on a number of borderline seals.
    --
    -------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD








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    Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

    posted by  someone claiming to be joey on  Fri Jan 7 18:09 CST 2005 [RELATED]

    If syn oil is going to "cause" a leak, it will be a drop or two at first from the seal that will gradually increase over time. Highly unlikely to cause oil all over the place like you're describing unless the seal was shot to begin with. I'd suspect some other cause.

    joey.








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    Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

    posted by  HD on  Fri Jan 7 10:18 CST 2005
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    last visit: Sun Jan 15 12:09 CST 2012
    [RELATED]

    Mine is just the straight 850 (97 also) that I bought with 76k miles on it. I immediately switched it over to synthetic and I just turned 86k miles on it and not a drop leaking. It might be something else that just coincided with your switching oils.

    Good Luck

    Henry

    97-850/86k, 98-S70/84k








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    Changed to synthetic and now I have the 'Rear Main Seal Leak?' 850 1997

    posted by  someone claiming to be jeffery47 on  Fri Jan 7 09:27 CST 2005 [RELATED]

    Its worth a try to switch back. I have heard that synth oil can cause a leak where dino oil did not, something to do with molecule size, etc.

    On the other hand, rear main seals have been known to go bad at 30K, 40K, or 155K like on my car. The seal is a weak link I guess. It costs about 30 bucks but takes hours to get to and then reassemble.

    At least with your car, the investment in the seal will pay for itself with a lot more miles of driving your R.

    You may want to try that high mileage oil with seal conditioners, but this leak could just be a coincidence after all. Price around where you live for the best deal - this is not a DIY job, unless you have a hoist, and even then its a big job.







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