Cirrus LX 2.4 L oil leak

I have a major oil leak. It is not the pan gasket. It was suggested
that it was the crank seal. How do I fix this and how much would it
cost? I try to do work on my car myself to keep cost down.

 

Crank seal - which one front or rear? You can tell by seeing which end
of the engine the oil is coming from.

Front involves getting access to the front crank pulley and removing it
to get to the seal. Rear requires dropping the tranny or pulling the
engine and removing the flywheel/torque converter - obviously much more
involved than doing the front seal. You need a shop manual (OEM, not
aftermarket) and proper tools for the job - or money to hand to a
competent mechanic. Part is under $20 in either case. Not sure what it
would cost for labor. Couple hundred for front for sure - more for rear.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Be careful, alot of crank seals are replaced unnecessary because the head
gasket is the problem. It wouldn't hurt to have someone do an oil dye test
to verify the leak.

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Glenn is right. I would suggest putting in the dye first, to rule out
the valve cover gasket. I bought some dye from NAPA for about $4.50.

Mine turned out to be the rear main seal. It is a one-piece unit, so
the transmission has to come out. I had a transmission shop do it, and
it was about $460, and that included the seal and a new flexplate that
the seal had gouged, as it back out of position. The cost also
included a fluid and filter change for the tranmission, so I felt that
the cost was reasonable.

In your post, you did not mention the year for your LX. If it is an
early 1999 or before, I would suggest checking the headgasket for oil
leakage too. When my 1998 gasket started having problems, oil started
dripping from the left-rear corner of the head. It did not go as
headgaskets typically do, where the cooling system is involved.

This is a known problem for this engine, that was finally corrected
mid-way through the 1999 model year.

-Kirk Matheson

 

I have to agree with the rest. Check the head gasket. I'm not sure
about the 2.4 but the 2.2 used to have a rear cam plug that would leak
also.

Grizz

 

headgasket???

 

Yes - that's that flat thin thing between the cylinder head and the block.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Play nice Bill

 

But that's not important right now....


;-)

 

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

dam u got one right