Hello All,

I believe (with some certainty) that I've got a rear main seal leak on my '92 240 wagon. I'd love to do it myself, but don't have any of the jacks or lifts to deal with the engine and the tranny. Can anyone recommend a mechanic in SoCal that will do it for a decent price? I really hate seeing a labor estimate of $600 with parts of $40. I know it takes a bunch of time, but I'm not rich yet.. I'd have a new V90 Wagon if I was!

 

Its common for the rear main seal to go on these. I had one go in my 93 not long ago. Being mechanical I did the job myself, but did hire a friend for 200.00 to give me a hand with the job because it made getting it out and installing it a lot easier with the 2nd person. My buddy was very please to make 200.00 in 10-12 hours (plus talking and smoke breaks).


You have a friend that you can hire and work with?

 

Talke to Pierce, he will know.

 

I'm in santa cruz which is norcal, not socal.

 

True but I betcha still know a guy!

 

sadly, I don't even know of any good older Volvo shops locally anymore. all the good guys have retired, or the shops have gone upscale and don't like working on older cars. I know a great Mercedes shop here in S'Cruz but thats not much help here.

 

That’s a shame, it’s the same here...

They don't even open transmissions up anymore, the "fix" them by replacing them with junkyard units (at least that’s my experience) And that’s only IF you can find someone that works on older cars.


All that being said, the job isn't that difficult for the rear main seal. If you wanted to embark on the journey, you could purchase the required tools for around the same, if not less than the shop would charge you in labor. Then you never have to worry about having those tools again.

 

if I had a cherry 240/740/940 with a failing AW7x, there's a local transmission shop I'd have no problem bringing it to. I stopped in there when I first got my 740T just to see what they would charge for a rebuild, and without even looking it up, they knew it was a AW, identical to the trannies in numerous RWD toyotas of the 80s, and they'd rebuilt lots of them... a full rebuild is about $1800, and another $1000 to remove/install, and they'd do the rear engine seal automatically unless specifically told not to.

 

Hiperformanceauto

http://hiperformanceautoservice.com/

talk to ian.