MobyDickDog

I had the car on my lift yesterday changing the engine oil. While I did my "big picture" look around under the car, I found what appears to be oil on the plastic "skid plate" that is secured under the engine.

I tracked where it appears to be originating from and it looks to be coming from some sort of black inspection cover that is held on by two bolts on the underside of the engine/transmission. I didn't pursue taking off that cover and investigating further as it was getting late.

Any ideas on what this "inspection" cover is and what is behind it and more importantly what the leak may be coming from?

The color of the liquid looks like the color of engine oil.


Thanks!!

alexb92

Pictures of said area please.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

yes, Im not to sure what an inspection cover is.
pics would be nice!

ez12a

iirc rear main seal has been found to be leaking on a few cars, including my own. Very minor leak, at least imo. Beezy to repair though.

P1zzaman

iTrader: (1)

This happened on mine too. When i took off the cover, the bottom of the transmission was covered in oil

07BLKTL

Good to know, are there any writeups online?


How likely are our RMS's to give way?

I hate cars

It's probably the rear main if it's coming from the inspection cover. Mine has a leak there too. It's never actually dripped so I'm leaving it until it gets worse or until the trans needs to be rebuilt. If you have a manual it's a little more important. If there's enough it will eventually destroy the clutch.

ez12a

requires dropping the transmission at least on a MT.

i cant say for sure how many people are affected, since it's not really noticeable until you take that cover off. pulling #s out of my butt, i'd say 25%.

it's not leaking enough on mine to register on the dip stick. I think i'm burning more oil than leaking from the RMS. Rate of loss is about half a quart every 5k for me. When i get my clutch changed eventually i'll get it replaced.

MobyDickDog

Thanks guys! I always get confused and turned around on Front Wheel Drive vehicles. I couldn't tell ya which is the front seal or the rear seal on a sideways engine. It sounds like from a couple of the responses that it's a seal. I may just end up taking it to the Stealership and have them take a look. I have an Acura Extended Warranty so hopefully this type of item is covered.

MobyDickDog

Update.

Dropped our 2007 Acura TL Type S off at the dealership. Rear Main seal is covered under warranty. SaWeeeeet !!!!

truonghthe

under what specific warranty? After market, power train, original warranty? I am interesting to know about this since this is kinda thing that usually happen to J series motor.

nfnsquared

OP, was it in this same general area?

https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...88&postcount=1

Happened on my 04 6MT shortly after having the PS safety recall done (coincidentally or not...). It never dripped on the garage floor and it stopped as mysteriously as it started....

MobyDickDog

Yep, that's the exact area where my oil was leaking.

I'm not 100% sure of which "warranty" it falls under. I have an Acura Warranty that expires in Jan 2015 and then there is the 6 year / 70,000 mile Powertrain Warranty.

I pick the car up on Monday and will try to find out what warranty actually covered it.


For what it's worth, I bought the car new in January of 2007. I currently have 42,500 miles on it.

nfnsquared

Just curious, when did you have the Power Steering safety recall done? If you don't remember, have the dealer look it up.

MobyDickDog

I believe the power steering issue was accomplished August of this year.

About a month later they had to replace the Right front strut/shock assembly.

I see no correlation between a rear main seal and any of these 2 issues.

nfnsquared

Read the Power Steering recall TSB (pp 7-8). They remove the rear engine and transmission mount bolts and jack the engine....

I can't prove it, but that's my theory. There are several of us who had the same leak, all after the PS recall was done. And I'll bet you also didn't have the leak until after the PS recall was done....

MobyDickDog

OK, so how many thousands of Acura's had a Power Steering Recall?

How many now have rear main seal leaks?

Tehvine

Mine has one, has had one for several years now. Hasn't leaked enough to cause issue yet. Figure I will do it when the clutch goes.

truonghthe

my 6th gen Accord has a leak it was so bad that I had to put a tray under the car so it catch whatever leak, I actually has to add more oil into the motor to drive to my mechanic house and has him does the work, he later told me that he has to drop the AT and pressure plate off to gain access for the thing. local Honda dealer was asking for $880 for part and labor for that job.

nfnsquared

Who knows? I would have never known if I hadn't had the plastic skid plate off ( I've had it off before, no leak).

It really sucks for those who have an uncontrollable leak. It's a $9 part but $900 labor

Bruce Banner

iTrader: (2)

I had this issue and got it fixed during a clutch job, it's the rear main seal. This is one area that I wish honda had designed the car easier to repair. People are correct, the part is $9, but the effort to get in there is high upwards to $900 in labor.

MEKO

iTrader: (1)

What's rear main seal?

First thing came to my mind was the transmission.
Our tranny is not like German one (one unit)
It's 2 pieces putted together, so there is a little leak in between.
Not a big deal though, it's normal

Is that what you guys are talking about?
OP is your car AT?

truonghthe

^^^^no the rear main seal is use to prevent oil from leaking out via crank shaft that spin the fly wheel to create power and eventually move the whole MT/AT. It located behind the fly wheel so in other words you must remove the transmission and fly wheel (pressure plate is prefer term of AT) in order for a replacement. The part it self isn't much money since it just a rubber seal like your brake caliper piston but you have to remove alot of sh*t (like J pipe and remove the whole AT/MT, flywheel or pressure plate and clutch (in MT) in order to replace it. The labor for all of that removal is high therefore your labor cost is sky rocket.

cokorote

iTrader: (1)

I have leak in the rear main seal for a while. Never bother to fix em. It cost around $1k to repair. F#@k that shit.

Its not a big issue in AT transmission right??

truonghthe

^^^yep they should be alright unless it gushing out like a water fall. My accord loosing about a quart for every two day so its real bad.

MobyDickDog

Ok, picked up the car yesterday.

The Rear Main Seal was covered by the Power Train Warranty.