new rear seal leaking

[funky technician]

OK, so I dicided to fill my new b6 engine with oil on the stand to test for leaks.......and found one. At first it was my own stupidity, I don't have a flywheel installed and the boolt hole on the crank go right through to the other side fo the crank (in the crankcase) so when I filled it up, oil started pouring out of the wholes, so I stuck a few bolts in the holes to keep the oil in, but then I noticed a small creep of oil comming around the seal on the mating surface itself (crank/seal lip), and upon futher inspection, it appears that there is a gap on the top half of the seal between the crank and the seal lip and not on the bottom, I wonder if the seal dried out and shrunk maybe, or if I can loosen the bolts and move ti down a bit, I'm gonna take a few pictures tomorrow, but I may have to remove this seal and get another if I can't stop the leak, even though this seal is brand new and was like 30 dollars :?

[Dave G]

If there's a gap between the lip of the seal and the mating surface on the crank then you've got the wrong seal in there.

[funky technician]

ya, I don't know whats going on, the part numbers right, it's probibly just a cheap canadian tire brand seal, I'm just gonna get a new one at the dealership, screw it, just sucks because now I'll need another oil pan gasket too :x

[funky technician]

alright, so I went to the dealership and bought a new rear main seal and oil pan gasket and installed it. The rubber on the seal was a different type then the cheap canadian tire seal, and it now doesn't leak, but I have a little warning, if you use torque in haynes manual for oil pan, it will crush rubber in the oil pan gasket and it will leak.... :x my first gasket leaked because I torqued it to spec, and the rubber squished out, so this new oil pan gasket I torqued with the ol calibrated wrist :wink: ......no more leakes anywhere

[Silv3rBull3t]

Sweet good to know... My "new" rear main seal leaked immediately after install as well and I didn't have the time to switch it out... So now I have an oil soaked clutch :-( Good to know for future builds.. -Kyle

[funky technician]

another thing I noticed is that if you over torque the oil pan, it can actually input a load on the rear mani seal housing, moving the whole seal up a bit and forming a small gap at the top of the seal like mine had, I believe this was part of my problem the first time, along with cheap parts, sao with the reduced torque on the new oil pan gasket, the seal moved very little after it was all tight