Has anyone ever had to replace their rear main seal? If so how much were you charged for all the service? I was given an estimate for $489 dollars. I wanted to know if this sounds about right or not. Here a picture of what I am seeing under my Jeep. I believe this is the problem. Any advice would be great.

 

Have you verified it's the rear main seal? I can see oil drips higher up the side of the bell housing.

I thought mine had a rear main seal leak and it was actually leaking from the timing chain cover and migrating to the same spot in your photo.

With brake clean, I cleaned the oil off the place you show, all points above it, and along the engine oil pan parting line to the front of the engine.
Once it was clean, I could see the point of origin after a day or so. In my case it was a porous timing chain cover.
Others have had the same evidence you show and it was a valve cover leak.

 

well I only see it coming from that area the most. I am no mechanic here but where exactly is the chain cover on the jeep jk? How much did it cost you fix the chain cover gasket?

 

The timing chain cover on the 3.8L engine is on the front of the engine.
At the time it was still under warranty. It wasn't the gasket. Some of the early cover castings were porous and the oil was seeping right through the metal.

Your leak may be a rear main seal as you suspect.
I'm just suggesting you look at possibilities higher up on the engine before you go to the expense and trouble of replacing the rear main seal.
There have been many more cases of leakage elsewhere on the engine where the oil migrates to the low point in your picture.

 

Ok I can see that. I will look at that. How do you see if it is porous is that a common problem on the JK?

 

A porous casting will "sweat" oil.
It's was only the early JKs that had the problem. I doubt you have a porous timing chain cover, but include it in your cleaning and observations.

 

Well I got told by the dealer it was a intake manifold and oil pan gasket leakage. They wanted $1050 for the repair. So their goes my tire money funds. Now I have to prolong the wait for a new tires.

 

I would still do as Ronjenx suggests. Clean everything up and verify the leak origin yourself.

It takes a little patience and frequent crawling around under the Jeep with a flashlight, but is worth it.

I would not take the dealers word for it.

 

I agree. I would never just take the dealers word on something like this. Verify and then move forward......unless 1k is chump change to you. It's not unheard of that a dealership misdiagnoses an issue when the culprit is a much cheaper fix.

 

Hey guys new to the forum! First time jk owner but had a YJ a few years back so quite the upgrade and loving it. I just bought it about 3 weeks ago now. 07 with 65k miles. Took it to the stealership to get an oil change and they switched out a recall with something in the steering. Can't remember at the moment. But they also said I had a rear main seal leak. After researching the forums and seeing it could be other issues I brought them up to the dealer and they proceeded to tell me how skillfully trained their mechanics are and if I wanted to spend $160 for a UV fluid they'd be happy to do that and prove it was a rear main seal leak and not something else. Well I checked and there wasn't any dripping going on but it's got some moisture. I'll take a pic when I get home and get a second opinion of what y'all think.