Rear Main or Oil Pan
 

Hey Guys, I was working on the X the other day and noticed a drip of what I'm 99% sure is oil on the lowest bolt that goes through the transmission bell housing, securing the oil pan. I can't seem to pin-point he source of the leak. From what I can see, the mating surfaces of the oil pan to the engine are all clean. But, I can't see inside the bell housing. I'll probably bring it in for an oil change soon so they can give me a full once-over. But, I thought one of you may have seen a similar issue before. If it ends up being an oil pan gasket, I guess I'll have a good project to do on a nice week this summer.:rolleyes: What do you think?

Here's a couple pics.

http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/...pszyapynut.jpg

http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/...pspht97hy3.jpg

If you have a mirror, try to examine the surface right below the teeth of the crank wheel (or use your finger to rub the surface) to see if oil is indeed passing through there. Also, smell oil for distinct odor that identifies dirty transmission fluid from equally dirty engine oil.

However, it appears your oil is wicking down from a topside leak (likely valve cover or oil check tube), as evidence from the oil seen in the seam of the bell housing and engine located higher than the lowest point.

I agree, it looks like its running down from above. You could try a dye test.

I would take a look at the oil filter housing. On my car the oil was accumulating under the bell housing as well. A new oil filter gasket fixed the leak.

Thanks for the advice, guys! I did a little investigating under the car yesterday. It's not the dipstick tube. The stain on the seem of the bell housing seems to start just below the dipstick tube. But, The connection to the is bone dry. I'll look around the filter housing. I did that gasket and the valve cover around the same time back in the fall. I do recall that I was racing the sun on the oil filter housing job. So, maybe something didn't get seated right. Is that possible?

that's more rear main than anything else.i have the same thing on my 02 x5 3.0 it is the rear main just debating on if and when i will do the job my self or get quotes.i'm stating to leave noticeable spots

My 02 4.4 developed a half dollar sized leak in the same place. It started after the 5 degree weather over the winter and a frozen CCV hose.

The crank case pressure must have blown the rear main seal. I'm so exhausted of throwing money in this car I bought a black rubber door mat. I put it in the driveway and park in the same spot...problem solved $9.99.

nice idea i've been spraying engine gunk on driveway after wife goes to work by i might just do the black mat thing.LOL

I'm doing the same thing. :rofl: I've also been parking in the street. If my mom sees another spot in the driveway, it's not going to be good. Lol

LOL!!!! :rofl::rofl:

I hear ya, I'm doing the same thing with my 2002 4.6is, parking it on the street, I refuse to park it in my garage or driveway, I got tired of cleaning up the oil stains. I don't want to spend the money to get my Indy to chase down all of the oil leaks as I'm getting rid of it in the next couple of months. As I type this I'm shopping online for X5Ms and Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s, just can't make up my which one to go with...lol!:rofl: Other than that it's been behaving pretty good for the last 2 years, and with 225K on the odometer I can't complain, I'm just ready to upgrade.

Your leak doesnt seem that bad. Mine on the other case seem abit worse.
I've worked on cars before(taking out engines etc etc) and this is my first SUV I have bought and i love it.

If this were a sedan i could easily work on this car. The scale of this car is just too big for me. Anyways i sent these pictures into my mechanic saying that my rear main seal is leaking(Knowing that its a big job).. What he said was..

"By the look of your photos it appears the rear main seal is leaking. This may or may not be the case. Oil coming out of this area can be from many different leaks and be very misleading. Most leaks on your car will end up coming out in that area"
"Doing the rear main oil seal is a very big job and we would not recommend doing until a concise check had been done on the exact location of the leak"

http://i62.tinypic.com/671302.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/3504haw.jpg

Sorry about the size of the pictures.

If i were to do this at the mechanic I was also thinking of changing the torque converter shaft seal everything is out.

Goodluck with yours, $$ in this. :(

As mentioned, the source of a small oil leak is hard to find. Gravity takes the oil to a bottom exit but it can be coming from many places above the exit point.

I always start with either cleaning the engine with gunk or spraying any areas that are stained with carb cleaner to remove the stain. Then check after a drive long enough to bring it up to operating temp. Don't always find the source or may take a drive or two but much better chance of locating problem.

I just had mine in for what I thought was the last leaks - vac pump seals and oil pressure switch. Rest of the engine was bone dry EXCEPT that bloody rear main seal. Thankfully my Indy has worked extensively on trannys - he actually did a RMS on a 545 while I was there in about 3h. It was good to watch. I'll schedule mine with the next oil change in 10,000km.

Thats great news, did he lower the whole front subframe to take off the transmission?

On the 545 I don't think he did. Not sure what our x-drive does to complicate this, but he attacked the 545 like a champ. He had a guy helping and that guy was busy the whole time cleaning, prepping while he did the job. I have confidence that it'll be in good hands when I get him to do mine. I mentioned he used to work for a tranny shop. He said no one could touch him when it came to R&R of a transmission. I'm ok not doing the job myself :)

I'm not sure if the 3.0 is the same design, but when I did the RMS on my old 4.4, the housing I guess you would call it for the RMS is also the rearmost part of the oil pan mating surface. I haven't had my trans off of my 3.0 yet.

I was thinking the same thing. Upper oil pan gasket. I'll be looking into doing this myself. The subframe will definitely need to be dropped for this work. There's other ways around it, instead of dropping subframe.. Drop the pan abit..cut the gasket at three points.. And gasket seal the areas you cut up.