Rear Main Seal

[K2Runner]

Well as some of you may know i got a leaking rear main seal. Since it's located in a difficult spot to reach i've heard the labor to get it done is very expencive($500-$800). But i was watching TRUCKS last weekend and they had this product on there that you pour into the engine with every oil change and it's supposed to stop the rear main seal leak. Has anyone heard of this product or even better does anybody have any experience with this product? Thanks!

 

[RunnerUp]

sounds like snake oil to me... to be honest its really not all that difficult to drop your tranny and replace it yourself... worse case scenario you get a buddy and a FSM and do it over a weekend. its a little 20$ seal and your going to have to have some SST or a puller to get the old one out. id say for the inexperienced wrencher it would take maybe 8 hours to drop the tranny the first time, without the FSM, then its just removing a few more bolts to expose the rear main seal, pulling the old one out, putting the new one in and reassembling

heres a pic of what you need to get to...

 

[LINY4Runner]

There's plenty of products that "repair seal leaks", but they're really only temporary fixes. The only correct fix is to replace the seal.

It all depends on how much longer you plan on keeping the truck. If you're gonna sell it, plug it up with some oil additave and send it on it's way. But, if you are going to keep the truck, I would shy away from the "band-aid" fixes and replace the seal. Like runnerup said, it's a daunting task, but not as hard as it sounds. (And of course the shops will make it sound alot harder than it really is because they wanna reserve the right to charge you more hours if they can't make their mortgage that month)

 

[K2Runner]

I plan on keeping the rig for as long as possible. I was thinking about using the leak stopping additive temporarily till i have time to fix the seal which may be a month or so. I wanna take it to the local orv park but i wanna do it the responsible way. Thanks for your replies, oh are there any write-ups about changing the main seal on a 3.4 auto?

 

[cashflow50]

can you point out which one is the rear main seal?

 

[ThorInc]

If you decide to replace the rear main seal go with the Toyota seal, stick with the OEM.

 

[Renegade_Medic]

You will need an impact gun, a 17mm swivel socket, and about 24-36" of extensions. Ask me how I know.

 

[Silver Supra]

I plan on keeping the rig for as long as possible. I was thinking about using the leak stopping additive temporarily till i have time to fix the seal which may be a month or so. I wanna take it to the local orv park but i wanna do it the responsible way. Thanks for your replies, oh are there any write-ups about changing the main seal on a 3.4 auto?

Just let it leak for a month if that's all... don't pour any of that sort of crap into your engine.

 

[jgue467]

I plan on keeping the rig for as long as possible.

I was thinking about using the leak stopping additive temporarily...

Those are conflicting statements.

You Either want to keep your rig as long as possible OR you want to take a chance on clogging up engine internals with a temporary leak stop voodoo liquid ??

No, no, no, if the oil loss is just a drip here and there, keep checking/adding oil as needed yet wait for a Real repair.

:cowboy:

 

[mtbtim]

[MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I have pulled an automatic transmission and it's a fairly involved job but not technically hard. Somebody above said 8 hours. You might be able to get it done that quick but a safer estimate is give yourself a weekend. Repair times for Sean and I are skewed because we have to deal with filming everything so who knows how long this would take us if we didn't have to worry about camera angles, lighting and making sure we're explaining things well enough for the viewer. I just know from experience there's always something that happens during a repair that derails your progress.

Here's the videos we made for swapping out Sean's transmission. These videos will get you as far as getting the transmission out of your way so you have access to pull the flex plate and get at the rear main seal. Good Luck!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZDSjlxl2Q4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O4GA3UhPC5Y" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T4YY3IfnzaQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[gamefreakgc]

Well as some of you may know i got a leaking rear main seal. Since it's located in a difficult spot to reach i've heard the labor to get it done is very expencive($500-$800). But i was watching TRUCKS last weekend and they had this product on there that you pour into the engine with every oil change and it's supposed to stop the rear main seal leak. Has anyone heard of this product or even better does anybody have any experience with this product? Thanks!

If you are trying to do this by yourself for the first time, I do not recommend it. That transmission is much heavier that it looks and without a transmission jack there's no way you'd ever get it mounted back up again. You would be in probably $250 in parts and tools alone to do the job yourself as well plus a weekend of busted knuckles and grime, or $500 to have it done by someone who's actually done it before.

If you do end up going the stop leak route, there's two different kinds. Some stop leaks are made to just recondition the seals themselves, causing the seals to swell and close up whatever leak might be there. The second, more dangerous kind will solidify on any surface. This is the kind where you hear horror stories of gunk and grime clogging up key parts.

 

[mtbtim]

i did forget to mention in my post above is you could skip some of the things we did like separating the transfer case from the transmission. You might not even have to drop the transmission/transfer case assembly to the ground. Just pull it back far enough so you can get the flex plate off and then replace the seal.

A transmission jack is sort of a crucial tool to making this a much easier job. The one I have is from Harbor Freight and it works great.

 

[19963.4lsr5]

To me the most pain in the ass part was removing the one dust cover bolt. If that bolt is missing then you know it's been apart before. Sliding back the trans may be enough. But removing the XFR case shifter, trans linkage, and unplugging the harness connectors to allow it to go back far enough. If your removing the exhaust to make more room cut the nuts off there the cat bolts to the crossover pipe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gamefreakgc]

i did forget to mention in my post above is you could skip some of the things we did like separating the transfer case from the transmission. You might not even have to drop the transmission/transfer case assembly to the ground. Just pull it back far enough so you can get the flex plate off and then replace the seal.

A transmission jack is sort of a crucial tool to making this a much easier job. The one I have is from Harbor Freight and it works great.

Harbor Freight is awesome. Not for professionals since their tools don't always hold up to contant use, but for us DIY mechanics they are inexpensive ways to save time and do jobs we could never do otherwise. Almost my entire garage of tools if from Harbor Freight, all bought with 20% off coupons LOL!

 

[rzgkane]

To me the most pain in the ass part was removing the one dust cover bolt.

Which one? Please elaborate.

 

[thegipper]

I'm assuming he is talking about one of the four bolts for the inspection cover for the flex plate. One of the bolts is a GD nightmare to get at.

I installed the three other bolts when I was putting it all back together and said screw that one....

 

[mtbtim]

I'm assuming he is talking about one of the four bolts for the inspection cover for the flex plate. One of the bolts is a GD nightmare to get at.

I installed the three other bolts when I was putting it all back together and said screw that one....

I know the one he's talking about too. It's the one furthest most on the driver side. I was able to get it with a flex head ratcheting box end wrench. It's hard, but with the right tool, it's not that bad to get out and get back in.

 

[theesotericone]

If you do end up going the stop leak route, there's two different kinds. Some stop leaks are made to just recondition the seals themselves, causing the seals to swell and close up whatever leak might be there. The second, more dangerous kind will solidify on any surface. This is the kind where you hear horror stories of gunk and grime clogging up key parts.

Exactly. You want a re-sealer. They recondition all engine seals by using a polymer that does zero damage to the motor. Do they work? Yep. How do I know? Cause I use them. A re-sealer will look very much like water when you pour it out of the bottle. A "stop leak" will be more like a thick syrup. Here's the backstory. Again. lol

I purchased my rig with 232,000 miles. I got a great deal and one reason was it had a very slight rear main leak. My plan was to fix that. I first talked to a mechanic friend and to my surprise he recommended Blue Devil Rear Main Sealer. After my own research I decided to give it a try. I put it in at my 235,000 mile oil change. It worked.

Then I changed my oil at 240,000 and did not put re-sealer back in. Then the leak came back. I did more research and came across another re-sealer. This one is the ATP AT-205. I put a bottle in at about 241,000 miles. It stopped the leak in a day.

Since then I've put 9000 miles on my rig and done two oil changes. I add half a bottle(4oz) of ATP at every oil change. There is not a single drop of oil coming off my rear main. It also stopped the slight seep coming off my oil cooler.

The moral here? Don't knock something unless you've tried it.

I have turned a lot of wrenches over the years. I was one of the skeptics about stop leak products. That was years ago before re-sealers entered the market. My mechanic buddy who told me to try this stuff has been turning a wrench everyday for 30 years. I trust him more then any random guy on the net saying something does or doesn't work.

I did a lot of research into how a re-sealer actually works and I am convinced that they do work for certain leaks and that they do not cause any harm to the internals of a motor. But then again, I'm just some random guy on the internet. lol

 

[thegipper]

I ended up buying the wrench you speak of just for that bolt. It was still a pain to get off, at least for me and my baseball mitt sized hands so I just left it off.

The 1st tranny I had to pull out of my donor rig definitely helped me understand the tricks to get mine out when I had to do the swap.

And of course, a guy that I work with gave me a school bus grade transmission jack for free two months after I had the job done. Hopefully I won't ever need to use it but it sure would have been nice if he gave it to me before I had to go rent one!

 

[19963.4lsr5]

Which one? Please elaborate.

As mentioned below its the cover you need to remove to get at the Torque Converter bolts. Drivers side top. If you have big sausage fingers offer a small friend some beer. And don't put that bolt back in.

If it's not there then your rig was apart in the past.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk