Oil Seep, Oil Pan or Rear Main Seal?? *pics

[dth0ng69]

Okay So I had a long semi-frustrating journey of fixing a Oil seep that seeps from the square hole of my engine stiffner.
I thought that the seep was coming from my oil pan gasket, which I replaced and where the confusion began. (My old Post http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2610576) sorry for camera phone Pics.
I have a 1998 civic with a d16y7

Heres the picture of where the oil comes from.

When I took the exhaust, stiffiner, and flywheel cover off to get a better look I start to think that the seep is from the rear main, but I'm not too sure.

I took a picture of the inside of the Flywheel Cover, and it is kind of greasy.

Then took a picture of the flywheel and it looked a little greasy

When I swiped my fingers around the housing for the flywheel heres the really black Oily substance that I see

what I'm confused is, why is the oil substance that is in the flywheel housing really black?
If it's leaking oil from the rear main seal wouldn't it be fresh clean oil? (just did a oil change)

And my other question is Should there be any greasy black oil, in the housing of where the flywheel is at all? or should the housing where the flywheel is, be completely dry?

A honda tech told me if oil is leaking out of the hole on the stiffner it can only be the oil pan gasket or the Rear Main seal.

Thanks so much for reading, I'm really stuck on this one..
help would be appreciated.

 

[matt96ex]

Id say if you replaced the oil pan gasket correctly and still having a issue, it most likely is the rear main seal. Im going to assume you probably have around 100k+ miles on the car, which is when I normally see it happen.
As for your concern with the dirty oil in the tranny housing, its probably been seeping for awhile and just collecting dirt and grime. If you want to pinpoint the issue a bit better, clean the area the best you can with brake cleaner and wait a few days and check back. Hope some of this helps.

 

[dth0ng69]

Id say if you replaced the oil pan gasket correctly and still having a issue, it most likely is the rear main seal. Im going to assume you probably have around 100k+ miles on the car, which is when I normally see it happen.
As for your concern with the dirty oil in the tranny housing, its probably been seeping for awhile and just collecting dirt and grime. If you want to pinpoint the issue a bit better, clean the area the best you can with brake cleaner and wait a few days and check back. Hope some of this helps.

Hey matt96ex, I actually have 70,000 miles on the car, but it wasn't really brought in for a tune up until recently, when I bought the car. My question is should there even be any greasy black oil in the flywheel housing area in the first place?

 

[matt96ex]

Well I would guess if you have a seal leaking, its probably just build up from that. Are you losing alot of oil or what?

 

[dth0ng69]

Well I would guess if you have a seal leaking, its probably just build up from that. Are you losing alot of oil or what?

I think i am in the beginning of the rear main seal leak, because its seeping very slow, probably about a drop of oil would accumulate in 2 days? But since I replaced the oil pan gasket, the leak has slowed down a bit more.

 

[PhntmSk8r]

As stupid as it may sound, also check higher up. Distributor o-ring and valve cover gasket.

I recently had this issue with a cam seal leaking, the way it ran down the head it made it appear the head gasket was leaking when it wasnt. Needless to say i pulled the head and put a new head gasket and such on just to find out i wasted time/money and it was actually the cam seal.

 

[matt96ex]

As stupid as it may sound, also check higher up. Distributor o-ring and valve cover gasket.

I recently had this issue with a cam seal leaking, the way it ran down the head it made it appear the head gasket was leaking when it wasnt. Needless to say i pulled the head and put a new head gasket and such on just to find out i wasted time/money and it was actually the cam seal.

not a bad idea. didnt think of that

 

[dth0ng69]

As stupid as it may sound, also check higher up. Distributor o-ring and valve cover gasket.

I recently had this issue with a cam seal leaking, the way it ran down the head it made it appear the head gasket was leaking when it wasnt. Needless to say i pulled the head and put a new head gasket and such on just to find out i wasted time/money and it was actually the cam seal.

Hey phmtmsk8r, thanks so much for the feedback and help so far. But I'm sort of confused of how different seals can have oil run down to make it appear as oil is coming from somewhere else. Do you have a diagram of where I should Check? I already know the valve cover gasket, and its not that..
thanks guys for all the help so far!

 

[mixwell]

Hey phmtmsk8r, thanks so much for the feedback and help so far. But I'm sort of confused of how different seals can have oil run down to make it appear as oil is coming from somewhere else. Do you have a diagram of where I should Check? I already know the valve cover gasket, and its not that..
thanks guys for all the help so far!

its like a leaky roof. you can have a leak on one side of the house, and have the leak show up in the ceiling on the opposite side of the house.

try searching for a leak from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. this may yield different results. GL

 

[dth0ng69]

its like a leaky roof. you can have a leak on one side of the house, and have the leak show up in the ceiling on the opposite side of the house.

try searching for a leak from top to bottom instead of bottom to top. this may yield different results. GL

Hey mixwell thanks for the response, I know what you are saying, but this honda-tech guy told me if oil is coming out of the little square hole of the engine stiffner it can only come from the oil pan or the rear main seal... Im not sure if this 100% correct but he seems like he knows what he's talking about..
thanks for the feedback though.. still pretty stuck and confused..

 

[PhntmSk8r]

Its not always the case.

To further my example:

I have a little flat surface on the back of my block under my head, when the oil pooled the way it did on there it looked like it was coming from between the block/head. Simply because it was such a slow leak out of the cam seal that i couldn't notice it on the head and it just pooled up in the easiest spot to do so.

Your distributor is directly above the transmission casing. MARK YOUR DISTRIBUTOR and undo the 3 bolts holding it on. Check the seal thats behind it, if there is oil on the bottom side of the opening for it, then the seal is bad.

Be sure you mark the distributor and bracket on the head for it so you can line it back up when you put it back in/on.

 

[JCCLARK]

If your transmission is a manual one, then the black is clutch residue.
It builds up a lot inside the clutch housing.

If your rear main seal is leaking, it's usually a sign the main bearings are worn.
If you replace the seal and not the bearings, 99% of the time the new seal
will start leaking within several weeks. the worn bearings allow the crank to
move and that's what wears the seal out.
Trust me, I learned that the hard way, after replacing one 3 times.

 

[dth0ng69]

so after all this information and great feedback you guys gave me, I decided that My seep isn't serious enough for me to do anything right now. I think I'm going to wait until my clutch needs replacing, and replace the rear main seal along with the main bearings as JCClark said..
does that sound like the right decision?
thanks so much for the help so far.

 

[mixwell]

sounds good, just keep an eye on your fluids. just gotta put some kitty litter in your driveway.

powder washing detergent works great too.

 

[dth0ng69]

Oil Leak d16y7, Replaced rear main seal.

Okay So I have a 1998 ek, with a d16y7 and had oil come out of the flywheel cover, so I replaced the Oil Pan gasket and Rear main seal which are the possible leaks that comes out of the hole on the engine stiffner. after the rear main seal was put in about 2 weeks later, there is oil again...
A guy on clubcivic says

If your transmission is a manual one, then the black is clutch residue.
It builds up a lot inside the clutch housing.

If your rear main seal is leaking, it's usually a sign the main bearings are worn.
If you replace the seal and not the bearings, 99% of the time the new seal
will start leaking within several weeks. the worn bearings allow the crank to
move and that's what wears the seal out.
Trust me, I learned that the hard way, after replacing one 3 times.

Is the bearings a main problem for d16y7 main rear seals going out? and how much do bearings cost? I hope its not too hard of a job

But any help suggestions tip feedback would be great, Im really stuck on what to do.
thanks for reading.

 

[hondacivic98ex]

Im new to this and don't even know what im doing but it shows on your post that you know very much about civicx My car is blowing smoke from muffler and it stinks like burning oil?
and to top it off i was driving not even a mile and when i pressed the gas the car slowed down and when i would press the gas a little more it would acclerate a little faster and a lot of smoke started to come out of my muffler I'm clueless to what's going on and I need help

Additional Details
i put oil in my car 4qts and that was on top of old oil that was already in there, i didnt change the oil and filter first could that be the problem?

 

[Zzyzxek]

that black isent clutch residue is deff oil mixed with the residue. it shouldent be that lubed.

 

[Zzyzxek]

if that s**t gets on your flywheel your clutch will slip (like greese on brake pads... bad..)

 

[subspd]

I need to replace the rear main seal and per the recommendation of an early post some bearings? (Which one?) But I need a really stupid DIY for this... Anyone know of where a DIY with pics is located? I have searched here and done a google search of the site but the best info I could find was here. Help a noob out! Thanks for the help...

 

[VSP]

http://www.d-series.org/forums/diy-forum/126097-diy-repl-rear-main-seal-oil-pan-gasket-both-axles.html

There's some extra info in there--the guy does more than the rear main seal--but you should be able to pull what you need out of here.

Also: it appears you can buy the seal by itself or the whole assembly with the seal pre-installed for about 20 bucks more. I'm getting ready to do this job in three weeks on my car, and I'll be ordering the full pre-assembled replacement part from the nearby honda dealer; it just seems to be a bit easier and quicker to replace the whole part rather than dig the old seal out and pound the new one in there.