Hey everyone! I am not car savvy whatsoever.. so go easy on me haha.

Anyway, I have a '97 850 volvo. Front wheel drive, automatic, non turbo. The rear main seal is leaking something awful. I can't afford to pay a professional to change it so my Uncle WAS going to. Until he looked at it and says that the transmission AND engine needs to be dropped because it is front wheel drive. Then, I have other people telling me just the transmission needs to be dropped and even another person saying the transmission and steering column needs to be dropped... SO my question is what exactly needs to be done to change the seal? If there are multiple ways to go about changing it can you tell me all of them and sort of briefly explain how to go about it, and which one you think will be easier to do?

-Alyssa

 

If someone tells you, will you do it yourself?

 

Yes, I'd do it myself. I have put so much money into that car and it definitely isn't worth putting ANOTHER $800+ in it for the seal to be fixed... It has close to 250,000 miles on it.

 

You can do it two ways.

1. Remove engine/transmission out the top, remove transmission and access to the RMS.

2. Completely remove driver side suspension. Support engine from the top with a bracket or engine hoist. Loosen subframe on passenger side, completely remove subframe bolts on driver side. Tilt engine down on the driver side exposing the transmission through the driver side wheel well. Remove transmission, access to RMS

Either way you do it, all the same steps need to be taken to get to the point of either A)pulling the engine out of the top or B)removing the transmission out of the wheel well. In my opinion, much easier to do it by just pulling the engine and transmission out of the car, more room to work with and you don't have to worry about balancing the transmission on the crank, especially your heavy as **** auto trans.

Once the transmission is remove, replacing the seal is a PITA. My Dad use to be a heavy duty truck mechanic and he's replaced countless rear main seals and he helped me do mine during my manual swap. You can't pry out the seal. You have to drill a small hole into the metal ring towards the edge of the seal, once you have a small hole you screw in a screw and hope to god it bites on the metal ring, and then you gently pull out the seal. It is a pain in the *** and took us a few tries to get it out. And you can't go back, once you make that first hole in it, you have to replace it.

Oh, and don't mess it up, you'll have to do it all over again.

 

Hey Alyssa: When you made this statement, I assumed that you would NOT be attempting this job. You need a shop and a lot of tools. You should bite the bullet or dump the car.

Robert

 

Here is the way I look at it...

If the car is in good shape other wise, go ahead and spend the $800 to fix the car. If it does NOT need a timing belt, PVC system, brakes, and interior (seats torn), the car can last you a few more years. Can you find a car in better shape than yours for less than $800? If you purchased another car for $1,600 would it need repairs?

If properly serviced and taken care of, these cars can last 25 years or 500,000 miles.

Now for the real question... What caused the RMS to leak?

 

ahh, when I said myself I meant as in not professionally, probably should have been more clear on that. I want all the possible ways it can be done so my step brother, who is going to be doing it, can choose which way to do it...

 

I have done both. Out the top with the engine and trans, out the top engine only. Out the bottom trans only.

Easiest: Suspend the engine, drop the subframe and pull the transmission.

 

Might want to ck the engine compression first, before you attempt the RMS. I.e. if it's low may not want to put all this work into the car...

If you do the RMS, make sure you service the PCV system as well.

Low compression (i.e. lots of blow-by) or a plugged up PCV, and you'll be doing the RMS again real soon...