[Glock99]

04 Mazda3 hatch 2.3L 5speed 222k
After doing my clutch and rear main. My engine oil leak still persisted.
Now today did the oil pan. Pain in the A**!! Had lossen all my 🔔 housing bolts again just to get enough room to reinstall the oil pan!!! Anyway it only liked to leak when the motor got warm..
Wellll wouldn't ya know. After a good drive and cooling off in the garage. Bell housing has a drip forming again..
I give up. It's staying a leaker. I'll continue to haul around quarts of oil and drive it till she kicks the bucket!!
No idea what I missed or what could be the source of my leak?.. ran out of things to repair 🤣🤣Anyone that did a rear main and or an oil pan yourself would agree. I am NOT doing it again 😅
Time to start planning and saving pennies for a motor swap! Not enough patience or funds to properly rebuild my 2.3L.
Maybe ford fusions 2.5L?

 

[zero_gravity]

well you got the right parts for a bellhousing leak. it's either the rear seal or maybe the back of the oil pan. i'm assuming that you're leaking enough to rule out a trans leak? i'm also assuming that at this point you've searched around the motor enough to rule out other leak sources such as the valve cover leaking. could trickle its way down and appear as a bellhousing leak.

when you replaced the rear seal, did you put grease on it? a thin coating of grease to help push it in and on the running side (inside ring) will prevent tearing and dry start. new seals are dry so when you first start the motor it can tear them before a little oil gets in there.

and yeah that job is painful on any car.

 

[Glock99]

Did the valve cover gasket a month or two ago. Looks good. The crank seal and everything by the pass side of motor is/was dry. Just around the 🔔?I did not grease the rear main.. I was misinformed that it should stay very dry and clean. Big rookie mistake I know! Even tried making a habit puting a smidge of silicone paste onto all new seals. ☹☹ This one seal that slips my mind 🥺
I just had the pan off last night and the back of the flywheel didn't appear oily. But that could easily be what went wrong..
Pull it all out again just to check? I can't bring myself to that right away.
It runs and drives great so I'll just send it for now.
I have a borascope. If that's what it's called? A little camera on a stick. Maybe sneak a peak by the starter?
Out of ideas and energy for now 🤣🤷

 

[zero_gravity]

Did the valve cover gasket a month or two ago. Looks good. The crank seal and everything by the pass side of motor is/was dry. Just around the 🔔?I did not grease the rear main.. I was misinformed that it should stay very dry and clean. Big rookie mistake I know! Even tried making a habit puting a smidge of silicone paste onto all new seals. ☹☹ This one seal that slips my mind 🥺
I just had the pan off last night and the back of the flywheel didn't appear oily. But that could easily be what went wrong..
Pull it all out again just to check? I can't bring myself to that right away.
It runs and drives great so I'll just send it for now.
I have a borascope. If that's what it's called? A little camera on a stick. Maybe sneak a peak by the starter?
Out of ideas and energy for now 🤣🤷

the seal should definately remain clean. last thing you want is some debris in there when the motor starts. might as well take sandpaper to it. but yeah, seals should have a small amount of grease or even heavy oil to prevent that dry start. when the seal is driven in, there should be a little grease on that surface too. it's a press fit so a seal can also be torn driving it in. the grease helps with that.

might as well give the scope a try, just hope it has the resolution to show you something. usually there's some vents on the bottom of the bellhousing where it mates to the motor, maybe those will be big enough?

 

[Davids3]

Dry seal install = leaking seal. Really, for the work that you tortured yourself with you could have swapped in the superior Fusion 2.5 By the mileage on your 2.3 it is on its last days anyway and will soon join the huge pile of garbage 2.3 motors out there.

 

[JoeMini]

well you got the right parts for a bellhousing leak. it's either the rear seal or maybe the back of the oil pan. i'm assuming that you're leaking enough to rule out a trans leak? i'm also assuming that at this point you've searched around the motor enough to rule out other leak sources such as the valve cover leaking. could trickle its way down and appear as a bellhousing leak.

when you replaced the rear seal, did you put grease on it? a thin coating of grease to help push it in and on the running side (inside ring) will prevent tearing and dry start. new seals are dry so when you first start the motor it can tear them before a little oil gets in there.

and yeah that job is painful on any car.

Dang ..that probably what happened to my new main rear seal
was assembled on with no oil in the system and then shes starts
and possible dry wear