ahrmike

^yeh if its coming from around the trans that'd explain the clutch slipping if it got whipped around and its fouling up the clutch/pp

S2K_2003

Yeah, I am laying money on rear main seal. my oil pan is not leaking, one problem, I cannot find a rear main seal kit, does Honda call this seal something else, such as crankshaft seal or something??

bgoetz

Are you sure it motor oil and not tranny fluid (tranny fluid has a distinct "stink" to it, LOL)?? Based on atleast the color and the fact that you originally thought it was brake fluid, indicating that it likely had a harsh smell, my guess would be mainshaft seal.

If it is comming from the bell housing area and it is tranny fluid then it is the seal around the tranny mainshaft. If it is deffinately oil then it would be the seal around the engine crankshaft. Either would cause you to lose fluid and would soak the clutch with fluid, completely toasting the clutch and maybe even the flywheel.

Best way to tell would be to break the tranny away from the engine, but you will have done that anyway to replace the clutch, so..

Either way that sucks, you will need to replace the clutch and have the flywheel atleast resurfaced. Has your engine or tranny ever been apart?? This should not happen to either of the two unless you have serious hard miles on the car, or someone had it apart and did not put it back together properly.

bgoetz

Took a look in my helms:

The oil seal is refered to as the crankshaft oil seal, and it does not seem to difficult to replace. It would just envolve dropping the tranny removing the old seal and replacing it with a new one. There is a special tool that needs to be used to put the new one into place. Sometimes you don't need the special tool, but in this case I think I would use it.

The mainshaft seal may be more difficult, as the helms does not show an option for replacement without the mainshaft out of the tranny housing. This is not to say that it is not possible, just does not show it. If it is the mainshaft seal and you need to have the mainshaft out of the housing, I would have someone really knows what they are doing replace it. The tranny housing pulls away from the the clutch housing leaving all of the "goodies" in the clutch housing, so to replace it this way would require tearing the tranny completely apart and then putting it back together, which HAS to be done correctly.

For your sake I hope it is the crankshaft seal, either that or there is a way to replace the mainshaft seal with the mainshaft in place.

unclejemima

Yea, good question.
Has it ever been apart?
How many miles do you have on your car?

S2KenC

I had this problem on my car a couple of years ago. The problem was a bad input shaft seal that caused me to leak transmission fluid.

My car was repaired under warranty by replacing the seal. Here's my original thread:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...0&#entry7688958

ksks

Same thing happened to my '06 car with only 22K miles (last 2K SC-ed, so maybe that's why). The dealer calls it "rear main seal" though the service manual calls it something else and when you go online to buy its replacement, it is called something else.

At any rate, you can buy this oil seal from hondaautomotiveparts.com. It can be found under CYLINDER BLOCK-OIL PAN, item #016: OIL SEAL.

There are two special tools required. I recommend buying the first one that looks like a puck (service manual has the p/n). The second one, a handle, is not really needed and in fact I ended up not using it. To remove the old oil seal, drill a small hole, stick a screwdriver in carefully, and carefully pry it out. It will be a bit of a pain but once you get that section pryed, the oil seal should come out easily. YMMV.

I wasn't able to buy the oil seal nor the special tools at any of the three dealerships within 30 miles of my location but the best part is that hondaautomotiveparts.com sells them at about 40% discount.

S2K_2003

My car has 40500 on it now. see i dunno what took place in its past owners life. but i now do suspect there has been some sort of work done on the car, just tell tell signs i am seeing such as wiring harness clips being broke, or wrench marks on bolts. believe it or not I actually own the tools, I maybe new to the S2000 but now to cars them self's. I do appreciate all the info and help.

bgoetz

Thought it looked like the tranny bolts had a wrench on them at one time.

SilvCF2k

It might not be a bad idea to replace all gaskets while you are at it. I know to some this may seem stupid to some since you do not have that many miles on the car but you will have to pull the motor to fix this problem, which you already know, so why not just replace all of them while it's out... just an idea.

When installing the new seal make sure that the measurement from the distance of the crankshaft and oil seal is (5.5-6.5mm(0.22-0.26in)). I just used feeler guages for this.

I didn't buy any special tools. I used a brass hammer and a then peice of wood and carefully tapped it into place and then measured. Worked just fine for me.

Good luck with everything.