Rear main seal help

I just bought my dad's 2000 tacoma. It's a v6 and the rear main seal has been leaking oil for some time now. He's just been adding oil but I would like to do it the right way as I plan on keeping the truck for a long time. About how much would I be looking at for this repair? I would have the work done in a shop as I don't have the time to tear it apart myself. Just trying to get an idea of how much $$ I'm looking at.

 

I'm just going to guess at around $600-$800, whatever someone is going to charge to R&R the trans.. plus the cost of a seal ($10?)

 

x2 with Doug. I have an 05 and when I took it in to Toyota to get a quote they quoted me $900+, close to a grand. I ended up doing it myself and saving a ton of $$ but I get your deal on not having time. GL.

 

Whoa big fella. Are you absolutely sure it's the rear main seal. I was convinced mine was leaking but it stopped after I replaced my valve cover gaskets. The passenger side was leaking something fierce. The oil would drip right where you would expect the main to leak from. Maybe start there and change the valve cover gasket on the right side and see if it stems the flow.

 

It would be worth your time to replace the clutch, throw out bearing, pilot bearing, and resurface/ replace the flywheel while you're in there.
The whole job, if you don't have to buy or rent a trans jack and you already have the tools, should cost about $300-500 with parts.

 

Yes, check this first! Gaskets are cheap, and they probably need a refresh anyway. Good chance to clean things up a bit as well.

And this -- if it is a manual transmission and not the valve cover gaskets. Labor would be about the same either way, so you might as well put it back together with new parts rather than paying for labor again when the clutch needs a refresh.

 

I would figure this is likely billed out as a 8-10 hour job. And like was already mentioned if it's a manual transmission it would be extremely foolish to not put a new clutch in at the same time. It certainly wouldn't hurt to spray down the back of the motor with degreaser and get one of those tracer dye oil leak detector kits though. If it were something like the valve cover gaskets it would suck to have just paid to change the rear seal and still have a leak! Also if it is a manual and it's not leaking too badly I would probably just run it until it's time to do a clutch.

 

I'm glad you mentioned this. Went and looked again and there is substantial buildup around the valve cover. I will start there first.


And I'm not sure how to multi-quote but to TherealScuba, you're right about putting new parts in while everything's apart but it's an auto so no worries.

 

I don't know if it would work on a Tacoma but a couple years ago a friend of mine had to fix a broken flexplate on his girlfriend's 3rd gen 4Runner. He threaded a couple pieces of rod into each side of the block and was able to pull it straight back without actually dropping the tranny. Of course he had to unbolt everything and support the back of the t-case on a tranny jack but it might be easier than dropping the whole thing and certainly easier than pulling the motor. Of course he has a lift in his shop too so anything underneath isn't an issue for him.

 

Oops, well, good luck with it.