Hi, I have a 1999 maxima with 140k miles on it. During a recent oil change and inspection, dealer told me I need to replace rear main seal. I check every day to see if I there's any oil leak on the ground. There's absolutely nothing. Can I just ignore what the dealer told me? Please advise.
Thanks

 

did you look under the car to see if its even wet ? it would be coming from where the transmission mates up to the engine .

 

I would hold off until its dripping on the ground. Ive done a couple and its a lot of work. I wouldn't ignore their advice, I would just keep it in the back of your mind and know that you will need to do it eventually. You will want to check under the car to see if the spot where the engine and transmission meet is wet from oil just to verify their diagnosis and to see how soon it may need to be replaced.

 

On Maximas, the half moon seal (gasket really) on the upper oil pan leaks before the crank seal itself. Mine has had a drop hanging from the bottom of the bellhousing since I bought it 5 years ago. My oil level never drops, and I dont leak oil onto the ground, so I don't worry about it.

 

In my case, oil level never drops, but I will check under the car for any leak.
Thanks

 

Do you have a M/T or A/T? Oil on a clutch plate is not a good thing. With an A/T, it is not likely to hurt anything, other than causing a mess where you park.

 

RMS wont leak into the clutch, wrong side of the flywheel.

 

It is a reality that old cars can leak. Sometimes the leak needs to be fixed, sometimes not. If the car runs well, does not leak too much, and is not a safety issue, let it leak a little. A RMS is not exactly easy to fix.

 

Exactly, most guys I know with higher mileage Maxima's from 4th to 7th gen has this leak that asand1 mentioned. I would not worry about it too much, and RMS like you said if it is that is very expensive and 9 times out of 10 not worth fixing.

 

Eh, shes just marking her territory don't worry about it.

 

Yet again this is confused by both dealers and some members. The RMS on 4th gens I have never seen leaked or burst. It is the upper oil pan half moon seals that broke down and no longer holding the oil in the oil pan. Reseal the upper and lower oil pans and replace the half moon seal by both the RMS and crank pulley along with the crank oil seal and you will be good for another 7-10 years.

 

Agreed.

I've been dooped two times.

It's the upper oil pan seal that's seeping, not the rear main.

 

Does that upper oil pan seal/ half moon seal leak near the center where the transmission and engine meet? if so mine leaks also, I thought it was RMS which required removing the transmission. Oil level does drop but I keep and eye on it at least every 2 or 3 thousand miles, or sometimes once a week .

 

Look up CS_AR's posts. He has fantastic pictures of the 4th gen VQ, like this one of the half moon seal;

http://forums.maxima.org/8939375-post24.html

 

Same thing which is upper oil pan seal. Your RMS will only leak if you overfilled on oil and ran for a while. You will see smoke out the exhaust as well. Even saying that, it may not be the RMS as this happened to me at a shop where they overfilled and started smoking. Drained out excess oil and everything went back to normal and oil leak didn't change from RMS.

 

ok great I havent seen any smoke out the exhaust though.

 

Maxima.org Ladies & Gents:

I am in the process of chasing all kinds of oil leaks in my 203k miles 4th Gen. GXE. I took down the upper oil pan which was leaking like a sieve. I assumed I would also need to do the RMS but it appears that the rear half-moon oil gasket is the culprit that was causing a false positive for the RMS. It had an oil build-up coming out of the access cover.

My question is: Do you guys think, given the high mileage of my car, I should pull the auto tranny anyway and replace the RMS since I am this far along anyway? I've never pulled an auto tranny before and I'm wondering if I could just be opening a can of worms by doing that since the RMS appears to be good for now. The part isn't overly expensive; it is just the work and anything that could go wrong coming out or going back into the car. Thoughts?

 

Fix all other leaks and drive it around for a while, like a couple of months. RMS fix is heavy duty. The part is cheap but the labor is $$$$$$$$. Remember, if you maintain your automatic transmission properly, (like changing your fluid and screen filters regularly) you should never have to separate the engine from the tranny.

 

I have been good about changing the fluids and filters. The oil and tranny fluid were clean and didn't smell burnt or anything coming out so I think I'm good there. I have the car REALLY apart for a lot of other projects so I'm probably 1/3 to 1/2 there for taking out the tranny. I also bought a HF tranny jack figuring I would need it. Unfortunately, I loaned it to a friend so it's mine now, no taking that puppy back. I'm just concerned that if there are some "gotchas" with adjustments, etc. that I'll regret trying.

 

That's not necessarily true ...

I've personally been labeled as ****-retentive when it comes to my cars.

My RSM has been replaced due to necessity.

I do agree however, that all of the other leaks and seeps should be addressed first as it may turn out that it's not the RSM after all.