As I was sitting at a stop light in my rx watching plumes and plumes of white/grey smoke in my rear view mirror, I decided my oil seals must have finally let go. I couldn't accelerate at all without an atf style smoke screen coming out the exhaust. It was that bad. That got me wondering why the heck the oil seals break down all by themselves when everything else is fine?

My car is an 89 gxl with 112k miles. Car had been treated reasonably well from previous owners, may have sat too much though. It had been displaying symptoms of oil seal breakdown for a while, high rpm shift smoking, smoked when held at 4k etc...

So I'm just curious, why do they go bad, anyone know?

 

1) Insufficient lubrication/low oil pressure
2) Overheating
3) Normal wear&tear due to age

#'s 1 and 2 will kill them instantly.&nbsp The oil seals stick to the housings, and they literally shred themselves to pieces.


-Ted

 

Thanks Ted.

I suspect lubrication, guess I'll find out more when I get it apart. Hate to find out a mop line was plugged or something like that.

 

That's my BIGGEST fear.