rear main seal leak

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96gsr

New Member
Hi,

I have a 96 GSR that just got diagnosed with a leaky oil pan as well as a leaky rear main seal. I have three questions:

1. How is a rear main seal leak diagnosed, is it visible without removing anything?

2. Is it possible that there is only one leak, either the oil pan or seal, and the mechanic is making a hasty (and potentially profitable) diagnosis?

3. I found an article suggesting that a cam seal leak is often misdiagnosed as a rear main seal leak. Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks in advance.
 
is the leak on the tranny side? and if yeah...there shoul be a plate that isn't too hard to take off that is located on the bottom of the tranny. take it off and if you cant look up underneath you should take your finger and rub above the oil pan to see if it is your rear main
 
I just had a thread on mine leaking, it does require you to drop the tranny and/or engine to replace it so ya it will cost a pretty penny. If it doesnt leak alot dont worry too much about it.
 
if it is the rear main seal you have to drop the tranny. you dont necessarily have to drop the whole engine....just the tranny. take off the clutch and flywheel which will expose the rear main seal
 
Thanks to all of you for the advice.

Another question: the car has 120k miles on it, so if I go ahead with replacing the main seal does it make sense to go ahead with replacing the clutch as well?

How much longer might the clutch last? I don't do much racing, but do have a tendency to weave in and out of the LA traffic...
 
i think the safe bet would be to replace the clutch since you would have the transmission off and everything...and check the flywheel to see if you need it machined down
 
its costly for sure.

i'm about to start a thread about my leaks. but my oil pump is leaking along with the main seal.
which i just replaced and payed $650.00
 
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