When did your main seal start leaking?

Fordman50 · Dec 28, 2001

At 79k my front seal was misting and at 82k my rear main seal started dripping on the driveway after my first drag race

I think that this sucks and seems awfully early to have happen. How much does it cost to fix? I replaced a 2 piece seal on my old 82 F100 using a sneaky Peat years ago, I never want to do that again :barf:

BigPimpHustler · Dec 28, 2001

I bought my 94 used with 86k on it, and the rear main seal was leaking (so i thought) I replaced it when I did my clutch, but the leak remains. Leak is apparently in my oil pan gasket.

Replace it yourself.. its not too hard of a job (relativly speaking). Lemme know if you have any questions.

p.s. while you are in there, do your clutch, pilot bearing, and all your clutch components. No point in having to take your tranny our more then once.

FordFactory · Dec 28, 2001

mine was gone when i bought my car. it had 69K on it at the time. i took it to some guy to replace. i think the total including fluid for it came to around $60-70. not bad i guess and it was all done in an afternoon. the only thing i wasn't crazy about, but heard wasn't a big deal is that when he put it all back together it wasn't to the tourque specifications, just tightened. not a big deal.

Fordman50 · Jan 2, 2002

FordFactory said:
mine was gone when i bought my car. it had 69K on it at the time. i took it to some guy to replace. i think the total including fluid for it came to around $60-70. not bad i guess and it was all done in an afternoon. the only thing i wasn't crazy about, but heard wasn't a big deal is that when he put it all back together it wasn't to the tourque specifications, just tightened. not a big deal.

WTF? $60-70??? People want $300-400 here!

streetsnake94 · Jan 2, 2002

I'm not sure if I have ever seen a 302 that did not have a rear main leaking. Mine was leaking at 39K when I bought it. Not bad but enough to see it. If it wasn't leaking I probably would not have bought the car out of suspicion that something had recently been done to it.

BigPimpHustler · Jan 2, 2002

FordFactory said:
mine was gone when i bought my car. it had 69K on it at the time. i took it to some guy to replace. i think the total including fluid for it came to around $60-70. not bad i guess and it was all done in an afternoon. the only thing i wasn't crazy about, but heard wasn't a big deal is that when he put it all back together it wasn't to the tourque specifications, just tightened. not a big deal.

There is absolutly no way this job will cost you 60-70$, unless the mechanic already had the bellhousing out to do some other type of work like a new clutch or something. This job, even with a lift, would take you 3 hours. An average mechanic mom and pop shop will cost you 50$ per hour, plus your tranny fluid which is probably going to be like 10-15$, plus the cost of the seal, you are looking at, at LEAST 200$.

I did mine myself for the cost of the part

94CobraPace · Jan 2, 2002

My oil pan gasket was leaking on mine. I thought it was the rear main, but nooo..... I found out when I was doing my clutch last week. I took it to a Mustang shop and they did the pan gasket for $315.
Look closely at where it is leaking to make sure it's not the oil pan gasket, as I was told they do this alot.

BigPimpHustler · Jan 2, 2002

Same thing with me.. but if you were going to do the oil pan gasket, why didn't you just do it while you were doing the clutch? 300$ sounds like a rip off.

GreggN3 · Jan 2, 2002

When i got my car at 42k miles mine was leaking, not so bad but it was leaking. Recently when i had my clutch done we did the rear main seal also and it was fine for about a month and then started leaking again. I dont know why this would happen other than the gasket placed wrong or split. But these motors are known to have a leaking rear main seal. Anyone else have any ideas ?

NXGTS · Jan 2, 2002

Mine started leaking around 25k and is still leaking at 36k. My clutch is out so I'll be replacing it.

fastang50 · Jan 3, 2002

Mine started leaking the day after it's first visit to the track, it had about 9k miles on it at the time...... couldn't believe it. Hopefully some day I'll swap in a big pan and change the seal then.

mgranzow · Jan 3, 2002

almost 90k and still no leaking. knock on wood.

Kevin94GT · Jan 4, 2002

Mine started leaking at about 50k, my clutch needed replaced so I had the shop replace the seal and clutch which cost me, including all parts, around $600. Well now at 58k I have the cardboard back out on the garage floor as I am getting those little drops again. Whats up with these rear main seals????

BigPimpHustler · Jan 4, 2002

could be your oil pan.. that is what is leaking on mine

Fordman50 · Jan 4, 2002

How big a deal is it to change the oil pan gasket with the engine in? Is there a nice silicon gasket out there?

Autofantasy · Jan 6, 2002

I bought mine at 108K - It really only leaks when I run it hard. The rest of the time it seems to be fine. I've had 351Ms that left trails you could easily follow at slower than 5 MPH.I'm not sure if this is a ford thing or what - I've only owned one 5.0 That didnt leak.

MKoebra95 · Jan 6, 2002

I noticed it really bad after I switched to synthetics at 35000miles, but I'm not saying that the switch caused the leak.

madsn95 · Jan 7, 2002

my ride also has a leak, it started around 60 i took it to ford and they said that it would cost about $800 to replace rear main and oil pan gasket so i told them to k.m.a... car is due for clucth so ill due every thing at one time.

bronson · Jan 7, 2002

I was going to post a topic about this and seen this topic, so I figured I would ask here. I just noticed that my car started leaking oil towards the back of the engine. It is on the passenger side of the car where the oil pan meets the bottom of the engine, right at the corner. I can not see if the oil is leaking from any where higher than that though. The car is in storage so I really can't take it to a shop to take a look at it until spring, but it is bugging me that I have a leak. The car has a little over 90,000 miles on it now. Where would the oil be coming from if it was the rear main seal? What do you have to do to change the rear main seal or the oil pan gasket? I am just learning as I go so I am not sure what to look for yet. Thanks in advance.

When did your main seal start leaking?

Fordman50

BigPimpHustler

FordFactory

Fordman50

streetsnake94

BigPimpHustler

94CobraPace

BigPimpHustler

GreggN3

NXGTS

fastang50

mgranzow

Kevin94GT

BigPimpHustler

Fordman50

Autofantasy

MKoebra95

madsn95

bronson

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities