Cirrus LX 2.4 L oil leak

Crank seal - which one front or rear? You can tell by seeing which end of the engine the oil is coming from.

Front involves getting access to the front crank pulley and removing it to get to the seal. Rear requires dropping the tranny or pulling the engine and removing the flywheel/torque converter - obviously much more involved than doing the front seal. You need a shop manual (OEM, not aftermarket) and proper tools for the job - or money to hand to a competent mechanic. Part is under $20 in either case. Not sure what it would cost for labor. Couple hundred for front for sure - more for rear.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Be careful, alot of crank seals are replaced unnecessary because the head gasket is the problem. It wouldn't hurt to have someone do an oil dye test to verify the leak.

Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech

Glenn is right. I would suggest putting in the dye first, to rule out the valve cover gasket. I bought some dye from NAPA for about $4.50.

Mine turned out to be the rear main seal. It is a one-piece unit, so the transmission has to come out. I had a transmission shop do it, and it was about $460, and that included the seal and a new flexplate that the seal had gouged, as it back out of position. The cost also included a fluid and filter change for the tranmission, so I felt that the cost was reasonable.

In your post, you did not mention the year for your LX. If it is an early 1999 or before, I would suggest checking the headgasket for oil leakage too. When my 1998 gasket started having problems, oil started dripping from the left-rear corner of the head. It did not go as headgaskets typically do, where the cooling system is involved.

This is a known problem for this engine, that was finally corrected mid-way through the 1999 model year.

-Kirk Matheson

I have to agree with the rest. Check the head gasket. I'm not sure about the 2.4 but the 2.2 used to have a rear cam plug that would leak also.

Grizz

Yes - that's that flat thin thing between the cylinder head and the block.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Play nice Bill

But that's not important right now....

;-)

:)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')