Rear Main Seal Leak

[The Mad Hughesy]

Hey team,

last time my car was serviced, I had complained that there was a persistent oil leak, it was diagnosed with a rear main seal leak. I was told that in order to replace this cheap seal of about $50, the entire gear box had to be dropped out just to simply access it. So the estimated costs was at least $700 just due to the labour hours required to drop the gear box, replace the seal and bolt the gearbox back on. My car is a 2011 Triton GLXR

My current finances don't exactly allow me to go blast a minimum of $700+ to have this fixed currently. I have read a bit about additives you can add to the oil to help seal this up to prevent the leak, but have also read that this is not healthy for the oil or the engine.

My question is, has anyone had this problem before? and if so, did you simply pay to get it fixed, or have you used this oil additive to stop the oil leak. any advice would be very grateful!!

[K-Lub]

is manual or auto?  dont use stop leak additives more chance they will stuff something else up. I would just keep topping up the oil if you cant afford to repair right now, and yes gearbox is required to be removed to replace the seal, You would find to the clutch may be oil coated if manual and start to slip , if so a new clutch may be required , no extra labour really cause it all comes
 off to access the seal .

[The Mad Hughesy]

it is an auto. pretty much exactly what the mechanic said. in the meantime its a pain in the ass not being able to park my car anywhere without leaving a few drops of oil. Guess I just need to save the pennies and pay to have it fixed

[K-Lub]

well least its an auto so you dont have to worry about a clutch failing.

[The Mad Hughesy]

54 minutes ago, K-Lub said:

well least its an auto so you dont have to worry about a clutch failing.

that may be the only upside in this situation haha