So I've got a confirmed rear main seal leak. Here's the deal though: car has got 200k miles on it. Shifting is smooth except for the occasional clunk engaging if you do it too fast. The leak is not huge but my daughter will be taking it with her for a year down in the US. I would hate for it to become huge while I'm thousands of miles away unable to assist.

If I'm going to do the rear main seal myself, do I keep things cheap and just replace the seal or do I spend an additional $400USD to put in a transmission with 50K miles on it?

I'm inclined to just do the seal. Am I nuts?

 

Before replacing the seal, make sure that the crankcase system isn't plugged up.

I would not recommend installing a used transmission behind a working one.

 

Thank you, Tony. Yep, been there done that. I waited too long to replace my PCV system and popped my cam seals as a result (that was about 6 years back). I'm suspecting that the blocked PCV also contributed to my rear main seal leak. Just never dealt with it.