Quote:
Originally Posted by Boog
First things first on the 03 Tahoe 4wd. I washed off a lot of pollen. The crap was everywhere. I opened the doors and sprayed all of it that had accumulated in there too around the hinges.
Then I crawled under it to investigate an awful engine oil leak. The truck has 265,000 miles on it. It has great compression and runs great. It just leaks oil, a lot. We've had it for 10 years. We bought it for a daughter to drive. She moved on to an Avalanche and we kept the Tahoe just as an extra. Some years ago I took it to a shop to replace the main seal. They replaced the oil pan gasket instead. It still leaked. Some years go by and I wanted to sell the thing and be done with it. The wife wanted to keep it. Well now I need to put it back in service and got serious again about fixing the leak. I put it in another shop and told them with 265,000 miles the main seal needed to be replaced. They said the valve cover gaskets were pouring oil. I was skeptical but, well, I had not replaced them since we've owned it. Still leaks. I got under it and retightened the oil pan and it seemed to have fixed it. Feeling proud of my fix I moved onto interior cleanup. I cranked it up and low and behold it's pouring oil again. Right at the bell housing. So with it up on ramps I let it run while I laid under it watching the leak. I pulled the larger inspection plate off and just watched. Finally I saw the oil leaking straight down from the crankshaft as well as slinging oil to the bell housing to engine bolts. It looks like it might bleed to death!
This is a 4wd truck and at my age this is a bigger job than I want to partake by myself. So I will try a local shop again to get that main seal replaced. I guess because it is a big job not many shops want to do it? While the trans is out I want the oil pressure sender replaced too as I cannot even see it from the top side and, well, it's probably the original too. We'll see.
Any ideas on what this job will cost?
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It could be the rear main seal or the rear main seal housing gasket leaking. I've read that the gasket leaking is a common problem. The GM SI says you can re-use the rear main seal housing gasket. I wouldn't do that after 265,000 miles and nearly 20 years in service.
When you install the seal you want to make sure to keep the plastic seal installation sleeve inside the seal til the housing is tight against the block. It's used so the lip doesn't roll over when you push it over the end of the crank.
You have to pull the transmission and transfer case. Not a quick and easy job. I'd budget two days to do that myself. I'd be doing it on my back in the driveway and I wouldn't be looking forward to the task.
A transmission repair outfit would be more likely to be able to do the job quickly since they have the tooling and equipment to pull the transmission and xfer case out quickly. More than likely they have done more rear main seals than your regular mechanic could dream of doing in his worst nightmares. It's one of those "while you're in there" jobs.
I'd probably ask them to change the torque converter to pump seal as well.
Ask them to use GM parts. There is an updated design rear main seal as well so be aware of that and let your shop know that one exists. They'll likely recommend OEM parts but it's good to let them know you're on the same page.