Today me and my pops spent the whole day removing the tranny to replace the rear main seal hoping to fix a bad oil leak from the bell housing. Assuming it was the rear main seal... but to our misfortune... when it was all put back together and running the ole max started leaking again out of the bell housing. Sooo my question is.. What else could be causing this leak from that area ??? Possible crankshaft wear ? Its an 89 max GXE A/T

have u made sure its oil? cuz my tranny drips fluid..
anyways.. have u tried to trace the oil leak?
maybe its one of the valve covers running oil down to the tranny and then dripping on the ground..

Check the head gaskets or the valve cover gaskets as Hatmanafro mentioned. If they are fine, then you may need to take the tranny out again. There is a gasket between the rear main seal retainer and the engine block itself. It could be coming out from there.

Look at the diagram from Courtesy
http://www.courtesyparts.com/maxima-...1612_1615.html

Part #12296 is the retainer and #12296E is the gasket

EDIT: You may want to check the rear oil pan gasket also. The oil pan has two gasket pieces (one in the front one in the back) while the rest is liquid gasket.

Eventually, the seal will wear a groove in the crankshaft.
Repair sleeves are may be available to provide an slightly oversized seal surface diameter.

first take a mild degreaser clean up your engine bay and get the front end up on ramps and degrease the bottom half let it dry get the car on level ground let run then more than likely you'll be able to see where the leak is coming from,that and you'll probably find any other leaks that you didnt realize ya had.actually you shoul've did that first

I know what the difference is between motor oil and tranny fluid lol trust me its oil... ive had this leak for years The valve cover gaskets were also replaced just this year soo i know its not them.

This is what my dad suspected the cause of the leak could be... but itll be awhile before we muster up the courage tear that tranny out again tho hahaha

Yeah we did this actually and the leak comes from the lil whole at the bottom of the tranny right next to the plate that covers the flywheel, in between the oil pan and when we removed the tranny and looked at the seal there was oil around it soo it seemed to make sense that was the source of the leak... guess not lol i think SteveB123's right about it wearing a groove in the camshaft that seems to make the most sense to me.

My valve cover screws were loose and leaking oil all over, it looked bad. I had to clean it up as much as possible to try and see where it was coming from. I eventually figured it was valve covers and torqued them down and no she's good to go from LI 2 NY and back again!!