3SGE experts please help..., Oil Leak...rear main or ??? Options

[SubbyRS]

Hi guys,

Newbie forum member, hoping you can help me out....

Background: car is a dead stock Celica SSII auto, so has the 3SGE with A140E transmission. We've owned it for 4 years and never had any probs whatsoever until yesterday......

Backed it out of the garage and discovered 3-4 teaspoons of engine oil had leaked out from somewhere......damn I thought....

Peered up underneath and found the following (excuse pics quality);







Does this look familiar to you guys? the leaking is pretty much localised to what you see in the pics, as you can see the oil has travelled up & down the engine mount crossmember thingy.

There's no oil leaking down the back of the head/block, and no oil leaking from the dizzy so I'm thinking either leaking sump or leaking rear mail seal....any definite thoughts/ideas??

The local dealer "wasn't too sure" and quoted AUD$140 to replace the sump gasket (is there one??), but said it would be around AUD$700 if it's a rear main seal. Now that sounds absolutely ridiculous given the cost of seal kits - is he off his head??

As an aside, the ST202 Celica never had the 3SGE here in Auz (much like the States) but the MR2 did....so it's not like the Toyota dealers will be unfamiliar with the motor.....

Is the Celica 3SGE much different from the MR2 3SGE?? they're both transverse so I guess not...?

Hoping you can shed some light on this for me, I had a good look around but couldn't really find what I need to know.

Cheers all
Rob

[Dr_Tweak]

I think your camera was to close to focus because I can hardly see anything. Usually a rear main seal leak will manifest itself by oil leaking out from behind the metal shield between your flexplate (flywheel) and onto the center crossmember.

The reason why a rear main seal is so expensive to change is because the transmission and flywheel MUST be removed from the vehicle in order to access it. It's very labor-intensive. The part is only like $20.

-Doc

[SubbyRS]

Couple of new pics taken an hour ago I undid the engine crossmemer to get a better view.

Q: if the main seal has gone, should I expect the ring gear to be splashed with oil?? it looks clean, but there's a small pool (poolette?) at the bottom, you can see it in the mirror...

[presure2]

like tweek said,
the reason for the high estimate is for R&I of the tranny ect.
the seal is a 20$ part.
looks like that is your problem, from the pics.

[SubbyRS]

All fixed. Definitely was a leaking rear main, so off with the tranny & several hundred dollars later we're done.