I had a rear main seal leak in my factory replacement 4.6.

The dealer fixed it just before my extended warrantee ended.

Or... If they NEVER LEAK ANYWAY, what did they fix and charge the insurance company for?

 

I'm looking at page 12-2-49 (Seal Crankshaft Rear, Overhaul) in the Rave as part of this procedure which seems to make the rear main seal seam simple. However in the Repairs section it says you have to drop the tranny to do it.

I had an independent rover mechanic (JC's in Denver) suggest I likely had a leaky rear main seal due to the amount of oil dripping from that vicinity so I was hoping I could get to it as well.

 

The crusifix seals leak. The rear main seal never leaks. I mean like never. Like "200k on factory installed seal" never leaks. The only one I have ever seen leak was improperly installed at the factory and the spring popped out and was riding on the crankshaft.

 

I should explain it better. On the rear most bearing cap there Is a T machined into the side. (check the picture of the caps on page 1 of this post.) That machined T is where the crusifix seals go. The oil pan bolts to the bottom of the cap, so when the crusifix seals shrink, the oil from the sump splashes up and works its way into the bell housing. If you remove the inspection plate on the bell housing you will see 2 streaks of oil (leftish and rightish) from the leaking crusifix seals. If the rear main seal was leaking, you would see 1 streak dead in the middle.

 

Thanks Chris,

I appreciate your willingness to follow up and explain on this. I definitely have two streaks of oil indicating it is indeed my crucifix seal.

 

Chris,


Great write up! My '03 Disco (82k miles) was making the same "tick-tick-tick" you described, but only after warm up and at idle in "D" (abt 750 rpm). When I first purchased the LR, the oil pressure light would flicker when warm at idle in "D" at a stop light. I changed the oil to 5W-40 Mobil 1 and this flickering stopped.


Manually checked oil pressure and found to be:


- 50 psi at cold start up; no noise, no oil pressure light.

- 25-30 psi after initial warm up, light intermittent ticking in 'D', at 750 RPM. Seems to emanate from bottom end.

- 7-10 psi at full temperature (needle at half way mark), still no oil pressure light flickering. More pronounced ticking at low idle, but goes away when accelerated to 1,000 RPM or higher.


Pulled the pan and, sure enough, the rod bearings were shot and the mains were below spec. Went through the whole process you described here, except I replaced the whole timing cover assembly with a new unit and replaced the timing chain and gears, too. All factory LR parts used. Refilled the engine with Kendall 20W-50, as I was told this was the best break in oil for the old Rover V8s, even if I decided to go back to a synthetic later.


Fired it up and took it for a test drive. Once warm, the "tick-tick-tick" was back. Still seems to emanating from the lower end.


Any ideas? I'm going to retest the oil pressures manually after letting her sit overnight. I've been told the '03s and '04s had tapered cylinder liners and can't slip...and I saw no evidence of this when the pan was off. Piston slap due to distorted skirt(s) or a wrist pin?


Sean

 

--SDHOW-- Couldn't message you back, forum is 1999 crap and says your box is full.

03/04 does not have an oil cooler, on the oil pump is 2 bolts that block off the ports for the oil cooler, you can remove these bolts and the cooler will fit right in. I have factory oil coolers here if you need one. The transmission oil cooler is larger and can be used as an engine oil cooler. What you read is wrong. The sleeves will move once the block gets hot enough. The only way to combat the sleeves moving is by cooling the block down to 180 degrees.

Try what I said in the other message and let me know how hot the motor gets before it starts making noise.

 

Do you have a picture of these ports that are blocked off?
I'd be interested in a cooler for my '04, PM me?

 

One of the ports for the oil cooler is over the filter elbow under the oil pressure sensor. The other one is on the bottom of the oil pump. They are plugged with a large bolt on 03-04. To hook a cooler up you only need 99-02 oil cooler lines and a trans cooler (trans coolers are bigger.)

 

Did you do another oil pressure test after the rebuild? Those hot idle numbers you posted above (7-10PSI) are very low. With a new timing cover I assume you got all new oil pump gears so your oil pressure should be much higher now. I never go below 18psi even on the hottest Texas days after driving for hours. I run the 15w-40 that RoverMasterTech recommends by the way.

Did you install a new o-ring on the pick up tube?