trik396

Went under my truck today because it warmed up to a balmy 16degrees... Just checking out things, ya know... Anyway, I notice oil on the back of the oil pan. Looks like it's coming from the top of the pan, rear toward the driver side. Could this be a rear main seal leak? How can I verify? Also notice some oily black residue coming out of the cover of the torque converter?
Is this a dealer only job or can I tackle the job myself (if its the seal)???

bulabula

There's a crankcase vent hose under there that can vent some oil/fumes, and thats what you might be looking at.

As far as replacing a rear main seal, that depends on what kind of shop/experience you have to work on the truck. I'd never do a rear main seal in my driveway. Lotsa big heavy things need to be removed to get at that simple little seal.

How bad's the leak? If it isn't much, I'd keep an eye on the oil level a little more often and take it from there.

longbed

When was the last oil change? Could weather makes for high oil pressure your gauge tells you this i would change oil and watch what happens when wheather gets better.

Geico266

Pretty normal to have some seepage. Rear main engine seal leaking is pretty rare. I replaced mine at 175K just because we were in there replacing the tranny.

Drive it like you stole it.

Its All Good

With your mechanical back groud, it shoud be a walk in the park. It sounds like your rear main seal is seeping, with your cold weather, I wouldn't be surprised that the rubber on the seal shrunk or even cracked. I'm not sure if the rear main seal has a special tool to install it, I haven't done our small engines but I did change seals on commercial ISX, ISM, ISC, & QM's. Which all used special tools to seat the seal to the correct depth.