Rear main seal R&R cost

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Well, it appears I have picked up a healthy oil leak on my '99 Camry. I did valve cover gasket, so that leaves the most likely culprit as the oil pump seal--however, when I took a quick glance under it, it seemed the trans oil pan was covered, along with the rest of the "wrong" side for it to be oil pump. [I was in dress slacks, wasn't going to roll around on the ground to find where the leak really is.] I can probably look tonight with a flashlight, but I don't think I can get to this nor the timing belt job for a couple of weeks (best case)--so I'm tempted to drop it off at the garage and let them put onto a lift and look for me.

If the worst case scenario is correct, what should I expect to R&R the rear main seal? I'm guessing an hour to remove the automatic trans, hour to remove convertor and flywheel and to do the seal, and an hour to put back together? 3 hours shop time? It's a 2.2L 5SFE Camry with 4AT.

I'm guessing it's 5 hours shop time for the timing belt--I might have that done too, as I have yet to do that too. I'd rather wait until warmer weather, but I've been racking up miles on this little car like crazy, saving miles on my truck (7kmiles in 3 month's time).

It's gotten to point where I don't feel safe driving the car anymore--I can no longer leave the car idling while I sit in it. Too many oil fumes coming through the HVAC. And now I'm starting to smell it all the time. The leak is accelerating it seems.
 
Make sure you don't have excessive crank case pressure blowing oil past the seals. My 99 4 cyl has 350K on the the rear main seal, front seals did not last as long. The oil pump gasket is a common problem for that engine with a couple of hundred thousand on it. It can be blow by the rings, rather than a PCV problem.
 
^ yup check the PCV

I show 8.6h + alignment was well

FYI timing belt: 3.5h (inc w/p and tensioner) + add 3.0 for oil pump seals
 
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Doah! Maybe I'll park until I can crawl under there and more properly look.

It's been leaking for a while. I R&R'd the valvecover first, as it showed some leakage, which lead to a new PCV valve, so I don't think that is the problem, although it has gotten worse since then.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
so I'm tempted to drop it off at the garage and let them put onto a lift and look for me.


In a standard troubleshooting process, this would be the most logical first step to take.
 
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Originally Posted By: supton
so I'm tempted to drop it off at the garage and let them put onto a lift and look for me.


In a standard troubleshooting process, this would be the most logical first step to take.


'cept this feels like something I should be able to troubleshoot myself... if i had time, that is. Being in a time-crunch I was open to the idea. Now that worst-case is known, I'm having second thoughts. While I can afford to, I'd like to not spend the money, at least not right this second.
 
Might be time to bust out the old ATP-205 Re-Seal and Maxlife & see if it slows the leak down at all. Not sure what the rest of the car looks like, but if it was pretty rusty or anything else bad was going on, might be time to trade it in (or sell it cheap). $1000+ in an 18 year old car can be a dealbreaker.
 
Car was from Arizona. So the paint is shot but it's rust free. [And getting a free oil coating to boot! ha!] [I Fluid Filmed it after buying.]

I have Maxlife in it already. Given how it's accelerating, whatever is amiss is getting rather bad.

Just picked the car up, end of October. It's my cheap beater. I think it's worth dropping another grand into, but I wanted to get my money's worth out of the first grand of repairs first.
 
Need to double check what's leaking before you have it fixed.

My Camry has had an oil leak and I just got it fixed. It was the "cam seal" or "cam plug" on the driver's side of the engine. It is near the throttle body but you can't see it without taking it all apart. When this leaks, it pools up all over the top of the transmission. Pop the hood and see if it's leaking on the top of the transmission, easy to see.

My mechanic charged me $100 to fix it with an OEM plug. No more leaks.

The seal is for where the distributor used to be on the older engines.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Need to double check what's leaking before you have it fixed.

My Camry has had an oil leak and I just got it fixed. It was the "cam seal" or "cam plug" on the driver's side of the engine. It is near the throttle body but you can't see it without taking it all apart. When this leaks, it pools up all over the top of the transmission. Pop the hood and see if it's leaking on the top of the transmission, easy to see.

My mechanic charged me $100 to fix it with an OEM plug. No more leaks.

The seal is for where the distributor used to be on the older engines.


I could get lucky, and it's that--but I already did that seal. Perhaps I botched it, that'd be nice. Err, it'd say I was incompetent, but in my defense it was 10-15F when I did the job.

When I get home tonight I can pop off the intake hose, see if I can find something on top of the trans. The starter was clean, but it's too forward to have oil from that leak on it.
 
Also check the bell housing between the engine and tranny. That's were oil seeps on my Rav4. Can see it from the top of the engine looking down and to the rear. I assume this is a RMS leak.
 
One more question... are you sure it is engine oil? If it is tranny fluid maybe the transmission pan needs to be snugged up?
 
Originally Posted By: DeafBrad
One more question... are you sure it is engine oil? If it is tranny fluid maybe the transmission pan needs to be snugged up?


You know, that is entirely possible--it's in that area too. Now you that you say it, burning trans oil would smell the same as hot engine oil.
 
I would degrease the engine then start looking or you will be chasing your tail.From the condition you mentioned, I wouldn't replace a rear main seal on that $1000 car.
 
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Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Have you monitored loss at the dipsticks?


I looked, but I haven't had the car long enough to "know" how fast the oil goes down. I did some 2,500 mile OCI's, "just in case" and it might get down to halfway. Looked yesterday and it was down halfway, which is troubling, as it's only been 1,700 miles. Been a while since I checked trans oil, though.

Originally Posted By: Lubener
I would degrease the engine then start looking or you will be chasing your tail.From the condition you mentioned, I wouldn't replace a rear main seal on that $1000 car.


It's a rust free car. Going down south and finding another rust free car is at least $500 in cost, on top of what the car would cost--and it would be prone to all of the same issues that this car has. Might as well fix what I have.

Oiling down my driveway isn't acceptable either.
 
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Got a nice day today. Oil all over the top of the transmission. Not so much on the head though, which is odd. But I think it may have been related to the valve cover. Maybe it just needs to be degreased and monitored.

I did notice the passenger side frame rail does have enough oil on it to drip, indicating possible bad o-ring on the oil pump. So I started in on the timing belt job before I decided it was too big of a job for me to do--I spent 2 hours to get the top cover off, only to realize I was out of my comfort zone tearing into the oil pump. Belt looks ok though.
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This area was all wet on the left side. I think that points to the oil pump.


It actually got a bit too warm today. The other side of the car was on dirt, which thawed out, and I could feel the car moving when I took it off the jack later. Plus my cardboard soaked through.
 
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