Quote to replace front crank (Picture) seal behind Harmonic

[08EddieCA]

i went to my trustworthy mechanic to have my front crank seal replaced - it leaks when I use synthetic or synthetic blend oil. He said All Data states the oil pump must be replaced and quoted me $650. I know it's a 1.7 hour job just for the seal. Anyone ever heard of an oil pump needing to be replaced just to swap out the seal? I haven't. I may do it myself even though I don't currently have the tools.

 

[edwx]

Never heard of replacing the pump, but that's just me. I replaced the seal on my '03 X, but don't imagine it's much different on a Gen 4. I did a lot of planning, and it took me a while to get the correct tools together. The main thing was a bolt puller, and I used a repair sleeve for the pulley flange, which was scored, hence the leaking. The job itself took a few hours. How do you know it's a cracked seal? I just figured mine was, by the dripping oil from the pulley opening.

 

[08EddieCA]

"Cracked" was a typo. I meant crank seal. It's leaking pretty good. I replaced the Harmonic and the mechanic said it wasn't necessary to replace the seal. 9 months later it started leaking. Since I run synthetic the oil just seems to seep out quite a but. I have a small quarter sized drip spot every morning.
I saw a Ford mechanic yesterday that quoted me $160. He hadn't heard of an oil pump going bad either and warned me to never go back to the "oil pump" guy.
How much was the repair sleeve and was at difficult to install? I'm going to replace my water pump while I'm in there too.

 

[08EddieCA]

 

[08EddieCA]

 

[Tech By Trade]

Problem was replacing the seal in the first place. Rule 1, if it ain't leaking don't replace it. As for the oil pump, he forgot to mention that you have to lift the engine to get the cradle off to get at the pump. your first mechanic was taking you for a ride.

 

[08EddieCA]

Based on the above, would you agree it's time to replace the seal?

 

[edwx]

The sleeve was cheap, but took me a while to find. I found the repair sleeve through NAPA. It was very thin and fragile, and you have to be very careful tapping it onto the flange or it will bend, and there's no turning back. If your balancer pulley is new though, you shouldn't need the sleeve, just the seal. Depends how much time and energy you want to put into it. I was way out of my comfort zone when I did mine, and probably wouldn't do it again, and would just let it leak. you sound more adept at it, and the seal replacement probably wouldn't take that long. Just up to you.