AZDon

Got a 2000 C5 with 58000 on it. Had a leak at the back of the pan that I thought was coming from the upper gasket, well maybe some of it was. I found some of the oil pan bolts were loose. I re-torqued everything and it seemed to slow up, but still leaking. Did a little searching and it seems the best corvette guy in the area happens to work for the Chevy dealer. Not my favorite place to go but i took it in anyway. He diagnosed it to be a rear main seal leak, not coming from the pan. $1200 and some change to fix it. So I gave them the go ahead. Pick the car up and take it home, about 30 miles and guess what. Leaking as bad or worse than before. Took it back and they were somewhat bewildered as to why, but the new rear main seal is leaking again. So I'm wondering, could it be a defective seal, maybe not centered properly or is there something else that could take out a new seal in 30 miles ? Any thoughts ?

jimmyLSX

Not centered properly...

neutron82

if they removed the rear cover it may not be centered correctly or they could have rolled the lip on the seal when installing it, if it's leaking that bad that fast this is what I would suspect

runner140*

I can't tell you how much I hate "dealerships".
Take it back and tell them to do it right this time.

Corvette-Dan

You mean Stealerships!

DanTTVette

Did they replace the rear cover seal also?
I had a similar experience, with oil accumulating at the back of the pan.
I replaced the rear main seal, but the car still leaked just as badly.

I want back in a month later and did the rear cover seal as well as another main seal.

Pan is now dry as a bone, a lot of work but glad to have the problem fixed.

I suspect that the problem was that after all these years, the RTV gasket seal (or what ever the factory uses) had failed between the upper pan lip and rear cover.
The rear cover gasket is pretty tough but the way the factory seals the pan lip to the bottom of both the rear and front covers is not so robust.

My main gripe here is that the bell housing has to come off in order to get the rear cover off. This was a PITA, even when compared to removing the drive train.

GL

zachaeous

I rebuilt my LS1 in 2015 and I purchased the tools to align the rear and front seal housings. If they just installed a new seal and did not remove the rear seal housing and reseal and align it properly that could well be a source of the leak.

I agree with all of the above posts. Hopefully they will get it right this time.

On my car the PO had the car into three different shops try and stop a oil pan leak. I purchased the car with this leak and upon tear down I found that the rear of the upper oil pan was warped and only contacting the block in the center. Thus the leak at each rear corner of the upper pan. Had the surface of the upper pan resurfaced and not a drop of oil since. The leak was dripping on the exhaust on both sides of the rear of the block.



Good luck with your repair.

AZDon

Well, I have an update. They replaced the rear main seal again. They replace the rear cover (housing) and gasket as normal procedure, so they told me. I'm thinking they didn't get it lined up properly. After they got it all back together this time, they couldn't get it to shift into park. Had to drop the exhaust and tunnel pan to adjust the shift cable. After they test drove it, they put it back on the rack and everything looked dry. I checked it myself as I was sitting at the dealership all day waiting for it. Got back home and could smell oil on the exhaust. I think it's leaking just a little from the back of the pan cover. The rear main seal looks dry. Going to do an oil change and replace that gasket tomorrow and hope that takes care of it. Thanks for the input guys.

AZDon

Success!!! It's nice to finally look under the car and see a clean pan.

73Corvette

wow! Glad your done with that ordeal...