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Did My rear main seal, still leaking.

iwannadie

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Gilbert, Az
97 county, 4.0, auto, 4x4.

I had an oil drip for a long time and recently it's gotten worse and started hitting the exhaust and starts to smoke pretty bad. I have in the recent past changed the valve cover gasket(OEM dealer) and the oil filter housing o-rings(OEM dealer).

When doing the rear main seal, I used a dealer RMS and 1 piece oil pan gasket. I soaked the RMS in oil and lubed it with some dish soap, I had torn two of them before so I used the dish soap to help get it in which worked great. I used some RTV on the oil pan gasket to in place which getting the pan back in and the gasket aligned was the worst part I think.

I started it up for a few seconds and turned it off. I had oil leaking out of the bottom on the transmission bell housing that fast. It is definitely engine oil and not transmission fluid. I have looked behind the valve cover the best I could and can't see or feel any oil there. My oil filter has a little oil on it which I found odd but not on the filter housing.

The oil is also not coming out of the back of the oil pan from what I can tell, it is from inside the bell housing. I am thinking it is coming down from higher up but I honestly can't see it being the valve cover unless it is a tiny spot that I can't see or reach. I am hoping that it is some how the RMS being soaked in oil/soap isn't getting a good seal and it will dry/swell up after running it a bit and be good to go but I haven't driven it yet to check that.

Has anyone had a similar situation or care to advise me a bit. I hope it's not still the RMS but if it is the second time through will be much easier knowing what needs to be done ha.

I am also thinking about making a temporary shield to cover the exhaust from the dripping oil.

It is annoying searching for rear main seal problems because of all the abbreviations used.
 
How many miles have you put on the rig since changing the RMS? The reason I ask is that I saw this same thing on my '99 and my kid's '01. One of the last things I ever wanted to see after the 10 hour job was oil leaking from the RMS area, but both rigs did and I wanted to hurt somebody in a bad way, if you know what I mean...

Anyway, with both rigs the leak stopped after some time. My '99 was slow to stop, but has been fairly dry for a year and a half (one drip every once in a while) and the kid's '01 is bone dry since summer. With his, very dark oil oozed from the bellhousing but if it was a fresh leak, I would have expected clean oil. Drive the crap out of it and see what happens.
 
i'll x2 the above post, if it's not pouring out it's probably just residual oil that will work itself out of there over time. Give it a week and keep your eye on the oil level and the pressure gauge.
 
I have seen tons of leaky valve covers right at the back that I could have sworn were bad rear main seals. Take a rag and reach back and wipe the rear of the head.
 

My VC leaked so bad it covered everything from the block, to bell housing, to the top of the trans and all the way back to the transfer case. lol

What a mess.
 
I haven't put any miles, I literally started it up let it idle a minute then cut it off just to see if there were any major leaks. I am going to drive it to work tonight and check it when I get back home.

I ran my hand across the back of the valve cover, what I could reach at least and didn't feel anything wet. I will definitely give it another look and be sure to use a clean towel to see if there is any moisture.
 
Dumb question, but did you rtv between the 2 peices? did you whipe it with alcohol to clean it before the rtv?

I install windows for a living, so i open up a lot of old window systems... and if the guy didnt whipe with alcohol, the silicone pulls right off.... doesnt even leave a smear on the metal...
 
Dumb question, but did you rtv between the 2 peices? did you whipe it with alcohol to clean it before the rtv?

I install windows for a living, so i open up a lot of old window systems... and if the guy didnt whipe with alcohol, the silicone pulls right off.... doesnt even leave a smear on the metal...

I did clean it with an alcohol wipe before putting the RTV on. I also cleaned all the metal before the alcohol wipe so there really should have been no oil/grease residue on there.
 
Check your air filter for oil contamination. If the orifice in your EGR system is plugged, you may be building up pressure in the crankcase caused by ring blowby, which is forcing the oil out past the seal.
 
Hopefully you lubed the seal where it touches the crank after wiping it with alcohol. A dry seal on startup will ruin a seal in less than a second.
 
It sure sound like the back part of the pan gasket didn't seat correctly on the bearing cap groove, hence the Exxon Valdez leak in the back...

When you go to install the pan gasket, I found it a lot easier to tack the gasket to the engine block with a little RTV to hold it in place. Plus you are less likely to wind up with an oil leak from the rear if the gasket doesn't seat well into the rear bearing cap groove, when installing the oil pan.

You don't have to gop the RTV on...just a nice thin bead on the engine block works great. Work your way from the back of the engine block to make sure the gasket fits in the rear bearing cap groove. As you move forward, use some of the pan bolts to hold the gasket in place while you set it. Go back and press the gasket really well to the engine block. Wait a bit to let the RTV set, then remove the pan bolts holding the gasket in place. Reinstalling the oil pan will be less challenging that way, than sticking the gasket to the pan itself, and trying to keep the gasket in place....

I tried the zip tie / rubber band trick to hold the pan gasket in place on the oil pan, and fail miserably with that method...
 
I may have mis-represented the new oil drip, it is a drip not a serious leak. I also really can't see it coming from the oil pan, looking up from the bottom I have a pretty clear line of site on the pan and it is dry.

I do like the idea of sticking the gasket to the block now as an after though. I did have a struggle getting the gasket to line up but I made sure it was all lined up.

I did smear oil onto the lip of the seals before putting them in place. I actually made a point to put a bottle of oil next to the bearing cap/seal just to be sure it was done ha.

I drove today with no smoke and I was parked for lunch and checked under with no sign of oil on the ground. I will give it a closer look tomorrow after a really long drive I hope.
 
Just an update, so far so good no leaks/drips. I just checked it today after driving and everything is bone dry. Must had just been some left over oil that I saw the first start up.
 
Just an update, so far so good no leaks/drips. I just checked it today after driving and everything is bone dry. Must had just been some left over oil that I saw the first start up.

Sweet! Glad to know you're dry. I'd like to know the source for that oil now that I've seen or heard about this a few times. You'd think any residual oil would drip out from behind the seal during replacement, but I suppose that is not the case. Good job on one of the larger PITA tasks on the XJ.
 
Sweet! Glad to know you're dry. I'd like to know the source for that oil now that I've seen or heard about this a few times. You'd think any residual oil would drip out from behind the seal during replacement, but I suppose that is not the case. Good job on one of the larger PITA tasks on the XJ.

Yea it's pretty strange but I am glad it fixed itself ha. I guess maybe it takes a little time for the seal to make total contact and the residual oil squeezed back out.

The actual job wasn't that bad really, with 2" lift the pan was still a pain to get/back in. Once I pulled the shocks and sway bay however, it was easy manipulating the oil pan. If I have to do it again it's one of those things that will be drastically easier the next time around.
 
Is it transmission fluid or transfer case fluid?
 
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