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997 OIL LEAK

davidcross

davidcross

New member
just noticed a smearing of oil on the garage floor. oil looks clean and not from the engine. the position of the oil is more from the middle of where the car sits. no change on the oil gauge and car seems fine...any ideas?
 
to be exact, it looks like its coming from directly underneath the gearbox. the warranty cud be coming into play fairly soon!!!! not sure if to panic or not
 
what does rms actually mean?? when i say directly from under the gearbox i mean under the gear lever. that make a difference? cars in for full service in a month, shud i hang abaout till then? its not like its pouring everywhere and cud have happened over quite a period of time
 
I am by no means a tech man, but believe the RMS (rear main seal) is the joint between the gearbox and the engine. A popular fault on the 996 and apparently some 997s have enjoyed this feature.

I cannot tell whether you should leave it, personally I would have an OPC drive by and ask for a quick look before the service.
 
Checked garage floor first thing today and it seemed dry. I must be going mad. I read various threads on rms and seemingly its doesnt have to be disasterous and apparently isn't the cause for engine failure. Turns out the reason opc's replace engines if the rms keeps breaking is because under the terms of the warranty they have to offer a permanent resolution to a re occuring problem. Rms replacement in itself costs circa 600 quid and worse case will require u to replace a clutch. I read this earlier on pistoni heads
 
Hi David.

Your RMS (Rear Main Seal) is made of a rubbery material and sits around your main shaft that comes out of your engine and goes into your gearbox. Its purpose is to keep the engine oil away from the gearbox and - most importantly - the clutch. The general consensus of opinion is that they sometimes leak due to the engine flexing against the gearbox under torque and allowing oil to leak out. They (Porsche) now (apparently) made the most recent 997's engine and gearbox "mating" a lot more rigid than any previously and say that the RMS issue should now be a thing of the past. Time will tell.

Are you sure that this oil was not from something other than your car? If it was engine oil I'm sure that it would have been black - or at least dirtier than you say it was?
 
Tks for reply Adrian. Rather strangely yesterday morning I checked the garage floor and couldnt see anymore traces of oil on the floor. The car had a good run yesterday and I've cleaned the floor so I'm gonna check it tonight. Oil level seems fine so I'm a tad confused. I looked into the rms on the web to see how serious it cud actually be and weather as a result its worth renewing my warranty next year. All very debatable points it wud seem!!!
 
All engines have a rear main seal, which seals the rotating crankshaft in the block or crankcase. If it leaks it will typically run down the back of the block and emerge from the bottom of the clutch housing, which is not sealed.

If it was very bad, it might get on the clutch, but not that likely. It cannot get to the gearbox.

The 996/997 block design leaves something to be desired, in that it does not appear rigid enough or accurately enough aligned. For whatever reason early seals failed fairly regulalry but after many redesigns, mainly to the seal, the incidence is now much lower but still happens occasionally.

I would not expect an RMS leak to appear under the car around where the gear lever is. Surely it would be more like under the rear seating area, i.e between the engine and gearbox?

Also, it would not be clean. Could it have been hydraulic fluid of some kind?
 
Tks for this reply. I was myself suprised that the oil looked clear as the car is the only mechanical thing is the garage. The oil seemed to have vanished by the morning and up untill Sunday nite it seemed oil free. I will check again tonight but I also didn't think it could be the rear main seal given the position of the leak on the floor. I'm having full service next month so will see if they uncover anything
 
If it vanished it sounds as though it evaporated and was probably water condensate from the aircon.
 
Well, I thought that but didn't think anyone could be so stu......!!

Just joking. That could well be the answer but then it should do it most times it is parked up, but if you don't normally look..........
 
Hi David, I agree with Snarf, the air con system has a condensate drain pipe from the evaporator (the coil that cools the air) and this is located approx under the dash location, i.e. slightly forward of the gear stick. The fluid is water so will be clean and will evaporate. RMS and intermediate shaft oil leaks will be under the engine approx in line with the rear wheels.
 
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