Rear Main Seal

[WillKeith]

Can someone tell me what is the easy way to replace the rear main oil seal?

Pull the engine or drop the tranny?

[DerFahrer]

I say drop the tranny. Much less wiring. Auto or manual?

 

Are you sure it's the rear main leaking though? I've NEVER seen a rear main leak on a Soobie...

[idosubaru]

he is right, it is highly unlikely that your rear main seal is leaking. other subaru leaks look like a rear main seal due to the engine layout. but they almost never leak. i've pulled a few 200,000 miles soob motors and have never seen one leaking a drop at the rear main seal. could be cam seals, crank seal, oil pump, head gaskets, cam carriers, valve covers. all of those are much more likely than a rear main seal and tend to drip toward the area under the rear main seal making a non-subby mechanic think it is the rear main seal. i would double check before going into all this work.

 

with good equipment and tools and/or help, the transmission can be dropped faster than the engine pulled. but it is more annoying because you have to work under the car which ends up taking longer if you don't have good transmission jacks and equipment to pull/install from under the car.

 

most people go with pulling the engine, it's an on your feet job and the engine lift does all the work. in those terms pulling the engine is easier.

[NOMAD327]

if you do split the motor and transmission, there is an item called a divider plate which allows oil leaks at the back of the motor. Some years have a plastic plate and should have a metal plate installed in it's place, I would search on the subject for more info.

[idosubaru]

double post

[idosubaru]

if you do split the motor and transmission, there is an item called a divider plate

 

also called the seperator.

[NOMAD327]

My bad, was thinking seperator plate, and talking divider plate with someone here and typed it in wrong.