Rear Main Seal or Oil Pan Gasket Leak

[Squintoo]

Replaced rear main seal in April. New leak in October. Shop where done says could be seal or could be oil pan. Each of those is 6 hours of labor.

Seal used was not OEM, apparently a European item. Have seen comments that non OEM seals have higher failure rate.

What is probability it is oil pan vs probability of seal again?

Any suggestions?

Thanks
1999 SR5 Automatic 180,000 miles
S

 

[etc.]

It would be hard for anyone to call it from not seeing pics.

Wipe the area clean very well, then look after some mileage to see if you can find the source.

I had a similar issue after autorx. It leaked pretty severely for a while, but it has gone away for the moment. I continued to use the Walmart high mileage oil and it seems to have swelled the seal.

Another location could be the valve covers leaking down toward the bellhousing.

 

[Drcoffee]

I was worried about my rear main oil seal because the oil leaking but after replacing the valve cover gaskets the leak stopped. It might not be those seals. Check behind the passenger side head for leaking oil.

* The torque spec for the valve cover bolts is 59 In Lbs not Ft Lbs The conversion is roughly 5 Ft Lbs. But dont just tighten down the old dry gasket, it will leak even faster.

Not to raise your ire but wont you be pissed if it turns out the rear main wasnt leaking after all?

 

[etc.]

Beatcha.

 

[4Running Daily]

Thread Revival

I too have just had my rear main seal replaced not too long ago, maybe 3 months, and now I have oil everywhere.


Untitled by 4Running Daily, on Flickr
In this picture you can see the transmission on the top of the photo, and the bottom being the oil pan.

Untitled by 4Running Daily, on Flickr

 

[Forrest97]

I have signs of oil in the area you are seeing as well. Its never enough to drip onto the driveway but still annoying. I just changed the oil and went full synthetic and will monitor it more.

Question though.

Is there supposed to be a bolt on the other side of the circled area in the picture below? Only asking because I do not have a bolt there.

 

[4Running Daily]

No bolt should be there.