Crank Front Seal

[SVX ROO]

Passing my lesson learned on:

Did your SVX start leaking oil between 120-150,000 miles? Oil under front of motor and of course everywhere behind there too? You are sure it is not tranny fluid from one of the cooler hoses.

Then I can tell you the leak is 90% sure to be the front crank seal. Schedule to change the seal at same time as doing a timing belt change. It takes 5 extra minutes when doing a belt change and seal costs $6.

Both my '92 and my '94 developed these oil leaks during the mile perods mentioned. Both are now dry at front of motor with just this seal change.

If you are approaching this mileage and you are doing a belt change, go ahead and splurge teh 6 bucks for the seal (even if the seal is not yet leaking). It is a snap to remove and reinstall. Be sure you have a deep socket or similar the size of the seal OD and get the new seal bottomed out. My '92's old seal was not full home and rubbed on crank pulley but that was not the leak.

I bought the cam seals before starting the first job as I was not sure the source of the oil. Cam seals were dry so I did not change them. They are a bit more work! Since seal is similar to crank and running half the speed, they should start leaking at 250-300,000 miles, right?

Sure wish the rear main seal was so easy to change as the front one!
Ken

[svx_commuter]

Ken thanks for the info and I agree with you. Change the front seals every 120k miles or 5 years whichever come first I don't worry about the rear seal because I think it is very rare for a Subaru engine to need that replaced.

[SVX ROO]

Unfortunately, my '94's rear seal seems to be leaking, not bad but a leak. If it is not that seal it is something equally inaccessible. But best left alone!
Ken

'92 Pearl
'94 Bordeaux
'68 Lotus Elan Plus @ with Cosworth BDR

[mile-hi-bri]

Just a thought - since some of us are in the process of, or about to do a tranny, why not do a rear main seal while we're in there!
How tough of job is it to do one. All the obvious 'stuff' is out of the way. Do you have to drop the oil pan and the rear-most main cap loosened maybe? Is it a one piece seal..ala the front seal and cam seals?
Feedback would be helpful...
Thanks, mile-hi-bri

[Mr. Pockets]

Is changing the front crank seal really just a 5-minute job? When I changed mine, I was real worried about setting it correctly and damaging the crankshaft, so I just pulled the oil pump. It certainly took me longer than five minutes. But then, I didn't know that much when I did it, and I was probably way more careful than I needed to be.

Better safe than sorry.

Man, if my friend with the Impule saw me type that...I always have to get off the difficult bolts on the cars we work on, and he practically can't watch. The guy thinks I'm a maniac bent on vehicular destruction.

[lee]

is #13 the part in question? I still need to change out the seals on the front of mine, just a bit scared to take it on, and too cheap/broke to pay somebody else to do it.

http://www.subaruparts.com/diag/?mod...category=032-A

Yup, 13 is the oil seal you need. If you're going to pull the oil pump (which I recommend), replace the O-ring (#17) too. Replace the pump using clean dry surfaces with a little Hylomar sealant on them and you'll have no problems. Besides, by the time you get in that far, the oil pump is easy and it gives you a chance to check it and see if it's in good shape. Go for it.

My rear seal went at 90k. Front going strong at 150

Mike

[svx_commuter]

Originally posted by mile-hi-bri
Just a thought - since some of us are in the process of, or about to do a tranny, why not do a rear main seal while we're in there!
How tough of job is it to do one. All the obvious 'stuff' is out of the way. Do you have to drop the oil pan and the rear-most main cap loosened maybe? Is it a one piece seal..ala the front seal and cam seals?
Feedback would be helpful...
Thanks, mile-hi-bri

The rear oil seal is one piece similar to the front crank / cam seals but it is much larger and will required much more force to remove and install. I would not do this unless I had the proper tool to insert and postion the seal in the crank case. Likewise I want to know the people doing the work had the right tool. An air wrench would be required to take off the flexplate bolts.

[svx_commuter]

Originally posted by Green1995SVX
My rear seal went at 90k. Front going strong at 150

Mike

You are the only one.

[SVX ROO]

Yes, It only took 5 minutes on the second car I did; maybe 15 minutes on the first one. The toothed crank pulley slipped right off on both of my engines, but the book says you might need a puller. All I did was carefully pry the outer edge of the old seal and a little whack or two and out it came. Clean up the seal seating surface and crank. Wipe a little smear of grease on the sealinbg surface of the new seal or on the crank. My tool of choice, the only one I had, was a 35mm DEEP impact socket. It matches the seal perfectly and seal went halfway in with just a good STRAIGHT shove. Once in straight a few light taps and in it went. You can hear when it bottoms out my the sound of the tapping, years of expereience with the ear. (Tap, Tap, Tunk)

As for pulling the oil pump, this takes more work than one poster suggested. I believe you need to remove the back side of the plastic belt covers. This means you need to remove the cam pulleys to get the plastic cover off. After that the pump might be easy; I have no experience. I thought my pump was the cause of the leak until a good clean up showed leak was inside the belt cover. So unless you know you have a pump problem, I would suggest the crank seal done at same time as the belt change and be done with it. MHO
Ken