[T3] Front Oil Seal and High Rev

[Jim Adney]

On 4 Nov 2014 at 2:04, J. Jonik wrote:

> Question now is:     Would a violent 5 second rev (of a warm engine
> with proper oil level) tend to blow, or loosen a front oil seal? 
> (Count off five seconds to see how l o n g that rev was.  It was
> nuts.)

I doubt it.

One thing you could check would be the crankshaft end play. If the 
front main bearing has come loose in the case, this will lead to a 
small, persistent leak thru that seal. You should be able to watch 
the end play from the fan end while the engine is running. If your 
car is MT, you could have someone depress and release the clutch 
while you watch the pulley for axial movement. The normal amount of 
movement is too small to see, so if you can see movement it's 
probably a bad sign.

If this is an AT car, this problem is unlikely, but you could still 
try to test for it by reaching down there with the engine off and try 
to see if you can feel any play when you push and pull on the pulley.

I think the odds of this being your problem are small, but you might 
as well look at it just to give you peace of mind.

If you find that you have excessive end play, it's still not clear 
that your muffler shop experience had anything to do with it. 
Likewise, if your main seal chose this time to fail, it might have 
happened now anyway.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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