So... Rover must be unhappy, as it has been leak free for some time But over the last week, it has left drops to 'mark it's place' - LOL. It is very black and does not smell like gear oil, so I am guessing it is engine oil... but can't tell.

Wondering if anyone has any similar experience. My first guess is the rear main seal?? But not sure. If it is the rear seal, can that be done while the engine is still in OR will I need to pull it?

Appreciate any help... thanks!
Cheers!

Note: I can provide a picture if that will help.

 

If the oil is coming from the hand brake drum then yes, rear seal needs replacing. May even replace brake shoes as this unit must be removed to reach the seal anyway. Definitely do a drain and refill on all of your fluids. Black gear oil is no good. If you are over 100K miles, suggest reusing the trans fluid though, if it is still good; replace the trans filter with a new one. Sometimes with a lot of miles on it, new trans fluid will cause problems which have been discussed on s couple different threads.

 

Defo the rear TF box seal. Depending how fastidious you are I would replace all the seals, front & rear TF, diffs, autobox output, TF input. You'll need to drop the TF box to do that lot but it's well worthwhile. If the diff or TF flanges have developed grooves where the seal runs or are loose then replace them as they are relatively cheap. Always use a now nyloc nut and new felt washer.

 

Chubbs, why do you recommend reusing transmission fluid? I've heard of issues flushing fluid on high mileage transmission, but changing fluid without flushing shouldn't hurt anything.

 

90% of the time if you do a filter/fill with new fluid you'll be fine as you aren't replacing all the transmission fluid at the same time.

 

aw man, we have at least 2 intensive threads on this topic. regular old drain and refill with new transmission fluid and then it doesn't shift like it did before. something to do with the amount of detergents you would be getting with quart upon quarts of new fluid and dislodging whatever particles which are currently happy wherever they presently may be. Then my boss who is heavy into automotive such as classic rebuilds, hot rods etc, told me one day that transmission fluid is to be reused if look/consistency/smell, etc checks out...and this was a random suggestion not even talking about transmissions. so there are old-schoolers out there who believe heavily in this.

 

Can't you replace the rear transfer box oil seal without dropping the box? I believe you can. I've never done this, but I think you have to unbolt and pull the flange and it's right there. The shop I go to replaced the rear oil seal just the other day when I asked them to replace the bolts in the flange.

 

misunderstanding. he was talking about replacing all of the oil seals and then you would need to drop the box to replace the input shaft oil seal. But not many people are going to go through all of that trouble for the rear-output shaft seal. If it were the other way around, and the input shaft seal was the issue then it would make more sense to replace every oil seal. But I wouldn't do it for just the rear output seal. If you replace the input shaft seal, then you get into replacing the input-gear and trans-output shaft to remedy the slop that has probably developed in your Park-to-Reverse shift so you don't have that "THUNK" sound anymore; it just goes on and on.

 

Thank you for all the great info... guess I'll go ahead and order up the rear output shaft seal and give that a go. Follow up once I'm done

Cheers!!

 

I just got done replacing my seals. If you have oil on the brake drum then it's most likely the rear output seal leaking inside the brake drum (so you may need brake shoes too if they'r pretty covered with oil). However after replacing mine I was still getting oil dripping off the brake drum (but not in it this time). I can see the transmission input seal is also leaking up higher and dripping down and off the brake drum. You have to drop the transfer case to replace this. The front seal to the front driveshaft should be pretty easy to see if it's leaking or not, it's pretty exposed. The seals wear a groove in the output flanges so you might want to replace that too.

That being said I suppose you could have a leak from many different places since the brake drum is the last thing that the oil will make its way to since its so low at far back in the vehicle