Okay, so I am new to the forum and needs some advise (2005 s2000). About 2 weeks ago the front seal on the transmission started to leak. I took the car to the dealer and they confirmed it was the transmission seal. Given that the car has 70k miles, had the clutch replaced as well. The technician stated that this was a rare failure (or at least he had not seen often). I've had the car back for a week..... yesterday I noticed that it is leaking again... Does anyone have experience with this type problem? Any suggestions? Obviously we did not find/correct the root cause of the original problem. Any advise is appreciated.

 

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I just replaced my input shaft seal at 141k. I have never seen them leak on hondas. But its a rubber seal so who knows how long it lasts.

 

It is quite possible that we have a seal compatibility issue with Honda MTF. These seals should not be coming apart this quickly.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Went back to the dealer yesterday, and the indication was they'd take care of it (if it was a problem caused by the shop). I changed the trans fluid out 8k miles ago. One fact was in the last 5 months the car has sat idle much of the time; maybe a couple hours use per month. So was thinking maybe the seal had dried out? Now that it has reoccurred, I am less confident about the root cause. Hopefully just a poor install. just to share my $0.02 on the bad smell hierarchy: dif fluid, Honda mtf, mobile 1. Will post back on the shop feedback later in the week.

 

Well... it has been more than a few weeks. But the saga continues. So it has been a little over a year since the front seal failed on my transmission. After the second install, the seal lasted a little more than a year. The dealer replaced again, and after a couple of weeks it has failed again. I do not have any other problems with the engine, clutch or transmission (that I know of). Is this seal just very difficult to install properly? One item that is very unusual is that it has leaked and then stopped. I know the transmission vents into the clutch case... I am wondering if I'm getting some sort of pressure, foaming, level problem? When checked, the level is correct. Has anyone else had repeat failures? Any suggestions where to start on other root causes? It seems very unusual for a seal to fail intermittently. At this point the dealer service manager seems baffled as well.... and that worries me. Any ideas will be appreciated.

 

Easy to blame the seal the first time but now it's time to look at the surface/housing that the seal is resting on. What ever, it's probably not the seal.

 

I agree, and thanks for the response. My concern is we begin replacing things somewhat randomly until the problem is resolved. The service manager has told me that the surfaces seems clean and within tolerances, they have checked the run-out on the shaft (not under load), I believe the clutch release bearing was replaced last year (I need to check). The question I have for anyone knowledgeable about this area is: do you have any recommendations what to check or where to begin. Is this type problem best suited for a dealer or a transmission specialist? I which I had the know-how to do myself.

Some items I have considered: check the engine mounts and transmission mounts to assure there is not unusual movement; is the clutch release imposing any unusual radial force on the shaft; is there any unusual axial/radial play in the shaft; ???

I don't hear any unusual noises in the transmission, the clutch seems to operate fine (though I am worried it will become "wet"), shifting is normal, etc.

Replacing the main shaft and bearing or the transmission housing will be expensive, and I don't think we have anything conclusive suggesting this will improve the problem. As you may be able to tell from this post... I am stressing out!!!

 

Well, this story has a good ending! So back to the dealership again with a leaky input seal on my transmission (intermittent). This time they discovered a crack in the clutch case. The hairline crack is only visible from the transmission side, behind the main bearing, and even then it was just barely visible. The crack runs parallel to the axis of the shaft from the bearing recess (internal to transmission) past the oil seal on the clutch side of the housing. This would leak under certain circumstances but not consistently. I have to admit, the dealership/Honda were very reasonable/fair with the final repair. Even though this took over a year to repair (and all the frustration of having an unreliable car), in the end Honda picked up 75% of the cost to replace the clutch housing and required transmission disassemble/reassembly. So in the end, I paid for a seal replacement 1 year ago and 25% of the final fix. In total, I have about $1500 in this over the last year... Not cheap, but it could have been 2x easily if they hadn't worked out the final deal. I'm back to liking my Honda again!