Rear main seal Leak?

hurleyblink

Member
:
2003 Protege ES
Ok so ive had an oil leak for a while now not like quarts of oil or anything very small amounts. but when doing my alignment the other night i noticed that my shifter linkage and right around the bell housing had oil on it. the linkage especially where it goes into the tranny. Just wondering what seal these could be a guy a long while ago told me it was the rear main seal. But he also cranked on my oil filter on with an oil filter wrench and punctured it. lol so never went the again and been doing my own since.

Ill post pics of it later on when i get some time
 
Well Anyway im probably just going to do my clutch i seen the how to on this.. Is it necessary to mess with all the gears and stuff or can i just pull the tranny and replace clutch and seal? then put everything back?
 
So question from the looks of it i have oil coming out from the where the block and tranny meet would it be safe to say my rear main is leaking?
 
just got mine replaced a week ago along with a stage 2 clutch after few hundred miles i went in a 6hrs drive and i noticed that its leaking again =(.
Is my crankshat bad? were the job done in wrong way ?. i took it back to the shop and they said to change the housing where the seal goes.

honestly i dont feel like spending more money if it will still leak after that, any help would be appreciated.

thank you
 
George,

Whatever happened with that issue on the leaking? I just did my rear main seal on my car, 3 days later, it's still leaking.
 
nahhh. some people say that the mechanic did it wrong and other says that the ton of vibration that my stage 2 caused when taking off on 1st gear =(
 
I also have an oil leak problem now, i originally assumed it is the rear main seal. but after talking to Dino @ speedcircuit, he informed me of a protege that had numerous rear mains replaced and did not fix the problem, he discovered that a few of the outside bolts that hold the main bearing support plate were not sealed with RTV, causing oil to leak down them and around the bolt heads mimicking a rear main leak. so that is something to look into. i'm still waiting on some more parts before i pull the trans but im prepared for either one. last time i put the MBSP on im pretty sure i RTV around all the outside bolt holes, but i was in a rush so i might have missed a couple. but then again it might still be my rear main.
 
I'm going to chime in here, because after my rear main seal failed, someone replaced it incorrectly and caused my brand new Exedy clutch to getsoaked in oil.

If you have your rear main seal replaced, please make sure you (or whoever replaces it) greases the inner surface of the rear main seal. If you replace it without lubing up the inside, it will tear due to friction from the driveshaft and fail immediately.

Overall, it's a very straightforward job, but not for the novice who doesn't have proper tools (i.e., tranny stand, etc.). Good luck to all!
 
Overall, it's a very straightforward job, but not for the novice who doesn't have proper tools (i.e., tranny stand, etc.). Good luck to all!

tranny stand?! gtfo!. if ur doing it in your driveway, just bench press that b****, while ur buddy wiggles it.

On a serious note tho. yes all 3 of the aforementioned can leak if simply they failed over time or somebody forgot to seal them. Id start off by giving it the engine a good degreasing a couple of days before the teardown. this way you can eliminate the mbsp & oil pan gaskets from leaking, (or at least be pretty sure they arent)

if those were not the culprit, then yes while doing the rear main, u can re-seal the ream main seal housing, please use grey rtv (that's the oil resistant stuff).

U'll have to drop the oil pan, if you want to take out the rear main seal housing (2 bolts that hold the mbsp, bolt into the rear main seal housing, u'll need to take them out)

long story short, use the following website and the pdf on there, to show u everything that is in the way
http://www.mazdaspd.com/manuals.html
 
I fixed my leak two weeks ago. it appeared the bolts in the middle of the mbsp near the trans was the leak. but I went ahead and resealed the mbsp including the 4 bolts in the middle, new rear main, resealed the rear main housing, and of course the oil pan. I used ultra black rtv, which has high oil resistance. ultra black or ultra gray works.

another tip, mentioned above. most instructions, including the service manual say to oil new seals. oil tends to evaporate. use a good quality hi temp synthetic grease, wheel bearing grease works good. don't be stingy with it. coat the outside and pack the s*** out of the inside. using grease you can insert the seal by hand. wipe off any excess and youre good to go.
 
Back