Rear main seal question(not fix!)

[5Cent]

Supposably had the seal fixed about a year back, turned into a long hassle(if any of you remember). Well it or something still leaks(havent' gotten around to check valve cover or oil filter rings) and while driving 4 hrs today from school to home, it would put out a nice cloud of smoke. Now this only happened when i was letting off the gas or hitting the brakes. Now this has been leaking ever so slightly, talking maybe a drip every two days, but's right between the tranny and engine. Now my question is why would this happen, only when letting off the engine, and not hammering it(which i did a couple of times to see if it would do it, or when passing those damn 18wheelers). I stopped and checked after the 2nd time and it was just oil on the area i described and on the front of the tranny. Drove about another 50-75 miles and it did it again. This time the whole undercarriage on the PS was covered, even back to the rear shock. Not covered as to dripping, but definitely got sprayed. Any ideas? Oh ya, oil level hardly moved.

Adam

 

[yellowxj]

My trans sprayed fluid everywhere when it was going. The whole undercarriage, around the back hatch. Would get hot and smoke under load as it self destructed. Sprayed out of dipstick tube onto exhaust too. Trans lines are on passenger side too. Whats the engine temp doing when its smoking and such. My trans would get so hot it would heat the water in the radiator and if I pushed it too hard the engine temp would start to creep up....If its not motor oil...

 

[5Cent]

Well the engine temp was fine, actually ran cool for once,lol. I'm beginning to think it's the tranny b/c the little drip isn't the color of my oil(which is clean since i just changed it about 700mi ago). I know tranny fluid is supposed to be red, but by the looks of it, it's black. I'll get to crawl under it prolly sunday morning.

 

[Kejtar]

Well, you wouldn't heat up the engine temps with your tranny unless you had a tranny cooler. In regards to the color if it's black, it means it's burned and it could still be either

Kejtar

 

[Eagle]

Doesn't sound like a leak or a drip -- that wouldn't happen only when you let off the gas. And the rear main seal wouldn't drip onto the exhaust to make smoke, it would drop right to the ground. A leaky valve cover or oil filter base could drip onto the exhaust, but would not leak only when coasting.

What you describe is characteristic of bad valve seals. These are little rubber or plastic "umbrellas" that fit on the stem of each valve to deflect oil away from the stems just so it won't run down into the cylider and do what you saw.

Valve seals are cheap and can be changed easily. The valve cover has to come off. You need a valve spring compressor, an air compresser, and an adapter that screws into the spark plug hole and lets you snap on the air hose. You get each cylinder to top dead center (TDC), pressurize it to hold the valve up, then remove the spring and change the seal.