Rep Power: 201

I have a smallish leak (3/4 qt in 5k miles). It is the front crank seal. I bought one today gonna tackle it tomorrow. I am pretty good with wrench, I was a mechanic for the last 15 years, see the sig. I have no doubt I can do it, just wondering what kind of timeframe it is taking you that have done it. Not worried about the water pump, t belt, all that jazz, I replaced it all not too terribly long ago. Just the seal.

 
Rep Power: 512

Seeing as how you're already familiar with the procedure to get to the crank seal, I'd say it'll add a half hour max to a timing belt swap. It's really a matter of wrestling the old seal out and "pressing" the new one in.

My memory is a little fuzzy about which one the front crank seal is.. As soon as you pull the crank pulley, the timing belt drive pulley, and the little timing belt guide plate, the seal you're staring at is the seal in question, yes? If so, then all my previous information still stands.

 
Rep Power: 518

With an impact gun growing out of one arm and an air ratchet growing out of the other, a hoist to raise the car effortlessly, correct tools for the pulley and the seal driver, and done the job a hundred times.......1.0-1.5, maybe 2.0 with coffee and bathroom breaks, assuming there are no snags. Depends on the hustle motivation.

No idea what it would take to do it in a driveway. I'd guess triple.

I have a favorite screwdriver with a mutilated and rounded tip that I always seem to use to pry the seals out.

Don't forget to tighten the alternator bolts.

 
Rep Power: 201

So, the absolute worst thing here is the stupid push pins holding air damn on, LOL. I have had them on and off like 5 times and still haven't stopped by the zone to buy a box of new ones.

 
Rep Power: 201

The push pins did suck....
I replaced it, but it took the better part of the day. We are potty training my daughter, her and my son are out of school. My wife is working, so do the math...
After tearing into it it wasn't to bad, took no time to tear it down. While there though I saw that my water pump had a crystalized trail from the weep hole, so replaced it again... It was out of warranty. My srp belts were dry so I replaced them. A new timing belt was 12.99, alot cheaper than head repairs if it went, and it had 30k on it... The cam seal wasn't "leaking", but it had a little seapage, so replaced it too. So the parts list was front seal, cam seal, water pump, timing belt, serp and power steering belts. Then new coolant and bleed and an oil change. It took like an hour to tear it down, then I quit keeping track. From teardown to catching a ride to get parts and working on it again was like 3.5 hours. Times really aren't accurate when you spend half the day in between tear down and back together.

But the reward is this, last night I took ~ a 250 mile trip and got 35 mpg. Can't complain about a car that does that, has 170000 miles, and I have ~2000 dollars in from purchase + all the fixes since then...

 
Rep Power: 186

I sure hope it wasn't your internal oil pump o-ring leaking. I'd check it again in a week or so and see if you see any oil running out from where it would make you think it was the crank seal. There's about a 99.9% chance it's that internal oil pump o-ring if you see any leakage again, but hopefully it was just the crank seal.

I know about this because I went through this pain myself and ended up with double work for both the oil pan gasket and the crank seal, first thinking it was then crank seal and then thinking it was the oil pan gasket then finally determining that it was the internal o-ring on the oil pump.

I hope for your sake it was the crank seal.

 
Rep Power: 201

I hope that's not it as well I don't think it was though.. The oring would be a "Pressure" leak. It wasn't leaking that bad I don't think. The timing belt etc wasn't oil soaked in the least. I have experience with a whole lot of hydraulic systems though, same type of deal. Oring for the pressure (internal, not the seal you can change), and a seal to keep stuff out mainly. BUT those systems had 2500 psi too, not 30 or so......
Had a bunch of customers at that job that replaced the seal a bunch of times and wondered why it was still leaking!

 
Rep Power: 186

Well, it would be a "pressure" leak in the sense that the o-ring I speak of is at the output of the oil pump where the orifice has closed down and has started to create pressure.

Link is for reference.

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/a...3&d=1335504804