Rear Main Seal Leak!

[Shirl]

How much labor is involved and what am I looking at cost-wise??? Thanks..

[chas]

$300-$500 if i remember correctly. it was covered under warranty on my vehicle.

its mostly the labor to drop the transmission so that they can get at the seal.

[Gmtech1005]

The rear main seal, is the seal around the back most end of your crankshaft. There is a housing around it on the 3.8L. The transmission must come out...oil pan off...then finish it up..not a cheap fix, i think at the dealer I used to work at, we charger like 7 or 8 hundred bucks, I may be way off though. I was not a heavy engine tech..I was driveability. All 3.8L gm v6 engines leak from the rear main...It is the engines only real flaw. same as all 3.1 and 3.4L engines leak coolant from the lower intakes.

[black98V6]

Shirl, Being as you have an automatic you might want to do this yourself, dunno how much of your own wrenching you do but you and a friend can drop the tranny pretty easily then it's just a matter of pulling the torque converter, flexplate, maybe the pilot bearing then pull the seal pop in a new one and reverse the whole process. You could do it in a weekend pretty easily just takes a little mechanical know how. After pulling a 700R4 on my friends truck the first time and reinstalling after a rebuild we got to where we could drop it again in less than 30 minutes. (had to drop it again due to a faulty rebuild and of course reinstall after the problem was fixed) Anyway it's very doable.

[C.O.Jones]

Shirl,

Don't know if this helps. Last year I had just moved 1200 miles down here and the car poops out. Anyway took it to the dealership (f'ing expensive dealership)

Parts - $ 96
Labor - $711

Rear main seal total - $807

Any real shop should be able to do it for about half.

[F1GT]

I got quoted $500 bucks by the dealer.

But I ended up doing it with my brother in law. While I was at it, I changed the clutch since I was dropping the tranny. As I recall, I jacked up the car, then pulled out the driveshaft, drop the tranny. And no, the oil pan didn't have to come off. changed out the clutch. took the old seal out. When I took out the seal, all the coolant came out. The hardest part is scraping the remaining seal off. Cost about ~300 bucks for all the clutch parts and seal. Seal was way cheap as I recall.

[chas]

the dealer likes to change the oil pan gasket before changing the main seal. its easier and you get screwed twice.

are you sure coolant came out when you removed the rear main seal? oil should be on the other side.

[3.4 slow to go]

both will be on the other side

[F1GT]

Originally posted by chas:
the dealer likes to change the oil pan gasket before changing the main seal. its easier and you get screwed twice.

are you sure coolant came out when you removed the rear main seal? oil should be on the other side.

no, I stated it wrong. Coolant was just everywhere and seemed like it was mixing with the oil. So I did an oil change right after.

[aalugo2000]

fyi...
if you take the rear cover off then coolant will spill out (but you shouldnt have to), and there is a space where it will drain directly into the oil pan :eek: and you need to drop the oil pan to get it all out, if you just change the oil it will leave about 1/2 inch of coolant on the bottom, and after about a day or two of driving you will have royally f'd your engine all up. i found this out the hard way :( and the worst part was i didnt do it myself, i had a shop do it. so be careful

[F1GT]

Originally posted by aalugo2000:
fyi...
if you take the rear cover off then coolant will spill out (but you shouldnt have to), and there is a space where it will drain directly into the oil pan :eek: and you need to drop the oil pan to get it all out, if you just change the oil it will leave about 1/2 inch of coolant on the bottom, and after about a day or two of driving you will have royally f'd your engine all up. i found this out the hard way :( and the worst part was i didnt do it myself, i had a shop do it. so be careful

nope, engine is fine and dandy. I drove 3 miles home to drain it out, then pour a quart of oil in the motor to make sure nuttin was in there. Drove a day more and did another oil change. I jacked up the frt of the car to drain it out the drain hole. No choco milk either. and that was at 74,000 miles, it's now about 140,000 and car has been very good to me [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] reliable and always starts in 2 or 3 cranks. [img]smile.gif[/img]