Rear main seal? Cost?

Newbie here. Appreciate advice on this slow leak, 2006. Fluid levels good. Possible rear main seal? Advice? Cost? Thank you! Possible rear main seal? If so, cost advice, and any other advice? Thank you!

 

Looks like it could be the rear main seal, kinda hard to tell from the picture.

As far as cost to repair it depends on labor rates in your area, seal shouldn't cost too much but labor guide shows about 5.3 hrs to replace so multiply that by whatever the avearge hourly shop rate is in your area for an aproximate cost.

 

Thank you!

 

Remove that plastic cover, you can see if the leak is from rms

 

rear main seal? Probably like 8 bucks. Probably leaking.

 

actually that seal is relatively expensive. First one I replaced I drove it in crooked because their specialty tool sucks so I had to buy another one. Something tells me more like $40

 

$1700 at dealership. That was a 2020 price.

 

RockAuto shows them $1-16

don’t know what dealer has or how it compares.

I probably put brown when I did my clutch because that’s what it came with.
Some cars use black which is self depositing Teflon lined for causing less wear groove in the crank.

 

Im going to go out on a limb here for a possible cheaper easy fix. While researching last night for some other stuff i came a cross the thread about pcv replacement. People were saying they thought they had bad rear main seals and it ended up being a $12 part and less than an hour of work.

 

I do know that rear main seal leaks are rare. My buddy who works for toyota had told me. He also said that if its not leaking, even if you are already in there doing other work, leave it alone. Apparently they have had issues with putting brand new seals in and then it having leak after. If that is your source of the leak, an OEM seal is the way to go and Id put a thin layer of rtv around the outside of the new seal when installing

 

for the amount of labor to remove I’d stick with OEM, YMMV

 

it’s not rare. RTV is optional. The one I did during clutch (very well may have been OEM as that local dealer always hooked it up) has not leaked.
It’s not hard to pull these transmissions and if you’re in there already would be dumb not to.
10/100 is generally end of life for a serviceable wear item on any car.

it has to be the right depth. Done dry preferably with oil removed.
Either a good tool or using your own. I’ve used cut up soda bottles before.
Then let it sit for 4hr before rotating the engine by hand. So it conforms to the surface. Instructions often say to do this.

usually when a new main seal leaks it’s because whoever put it in messed something up during install.

and if it’s NOT black PTFE but rather brown rubber then there’s probably nothing wrong with a little bit of lube on the inside. Probably preferably something other than oil because oil is petroleum-based.

someone said PCV. Should you do that? Yeah. It’s a cheap easy valve. First thing you should do.
Properly functioning PCV also keeps vacuum in the crankcase to suck oil inward. A malfunctioning PCV causes pressure that forces oil out past seals to leak.
If the PCV system is in fact just the cheap valve (which wears) that is good.

compared to a German car. Giant expensive PCV breather system with multiple parts located underneath supercharger on Audi 3.0T for example requiring pulling it for like 7 hr labor job.
RS7/S7 4.0T even more. Pull front end off. Alignment and calibrations.

who’s that guy on YouTube, bmw and Toyota tech
Nick Nakai? I think he has a video on repairing OP concern.
The auto 5speed is supposed to be light and small.
Versus RA60F manual with 4x4 tcase is a big heavy awkward pig.