hey guys my rear main is leaking, im like 90% sure its the rear main seal. it leaves patches of oil after sitting for the night and a little in car parks after sitting for an hour. just wondering what happens if i dont fix it soon? does it cause any great problems?cheers

 

There are other things that can leak besides the rear main. Pan gasket, turbos, etc. You really should get under the car and take a look.

 

Open the clutch bell housing access and peek inside to make sure that's where it's coming from. I drove my car for over a year with a rear main seal leak. Only damage was to the clutch.

 

whats sort of damage did it do to the clutch? did it start slipping?

 

if you need a rear main seal pm me, i happen to have a brand new one still in packaging.

 

I bought my car at 59,600 miles, and the cat started smoking after a long trip. I'm now at 71,600 miles, and I found out, after pulling the oil pan off to reseal, then thinking my oil pan is warped because it is still leaking, replaced that oil pan with a pineapple racing oil pan to find out it still is leaking, I'm now in the process to get the rear main seal replaced. I did exactly what the member above stated. Take off that plate under the tranny and see if you can see oil on the bolts. If you do, it is definately your rear main seal. The damage will all be done to your clutch. I didn't get any major slippage until recently. Basically after 10,000 miles. If you do this yourself, it would save you a lot of money. Otherwise it is about 6 and a half hours of labor. You also have to buy a new clutch. That is why you see my other thread here saying I bought a new Exedy Hyper Single for Efini.

-Jeff

 

No, the clutch didn't feel like it was slipping. In fact, I did an entire season of autocross with it that way, yea, I know, irresponsible, but it didn't matter. The clutch wear pattern was completely screwed up, the surface was ruined and there were very odd unexplainable patterns on the flywheel and something about one of the pressure plate springs overheating too. None of this mattered to me because all of these items were due to be replaced (and have been since).

Bottom line, you'll at least need a new clutch disc (cheap), and since you'll be dropping the transmission to replace the rear main seal, you won't have to pay any extra labor so just get it done when the seal is replaced (assuming someone else does it). Just be sure to carefully inspect everything during the seal replacement and you'll be fine.

Again, inspect inside the bell housing and see if there's oil inside it-- if not, you don't have a rear main seal failure (but don't be surprised if the spinning surfaces are clear due to rotation and heat).

As someone just said, remove the bottom covers on everything and inspect around because it could be the oil pan or turbos or anything else.