Rms Slight Leak

[laphan]

I had the similar amount of leak on my car last year. I freaked out because of the IMS bearing failure discussion in here. I sent my car to my porsche mechanic get it fixed immediately (cluth, IMS and RMS). When we had it apart, we found out that the leak was from RMS. Hopefully your is from RMS too.
Only if I knew that it was from RMS, I would have waited until my clutch is completely gone before I do something (I did not check my oil filter for metal particles).
My suggestion is try to look for metal debris in you oil filter. If you have no metal particles, I guess it might be safe to assume that it is the RMS that leaks (but check it every time you change your oil).

[clickman]

How do you know it's an RMS leak? It could be IMS. You can't see into that area without separating the tranny from the engine.

Apparently there can be a real bad smell to the oil if it's from the IMS, but I wouldn't bet my engine on it if it doesn't smell bad.

This is a tough situation. You don't know if the IMS is going to go tomorrow or if it's just an annoying leak from the RMS. If it was me, I'd probably sit the car until I could do the IMS, RMS and clutch.

That may not work for you.

[Richard E]

Thx for the reply guys. I thought the ims failure is a result of the rms leaking and washing the grease out of the sealed ims bearing. Am I wrong in thinking that?
The reason I assumed the leak was from the rms was because oil droplets form at the engine/transmission mating surface.
Thx

[tonycarreon]

a failed rms does not mean the ims is gone, and vice versa.

the rms was replaced on my boxster in 2008 before i purchased it, the ims was untouched.

[Richard E]

Does a leaking rms pose a threat to the ims bearing?

[clickman]

The IMS and RMS are two different and separate things. The Rear Main Seal is on the crankshaft. The Intermediate shaft is BELOW the crankshaft.

In the attached pic, the blue is the RMS, and the red is the IMS.

For a better explanation check out Wayne Dempsey's excellent article on Pelican Parts:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Failures/13-ENGINE-Common_Engine_Failures.htm

So, as the tranny bolts up tight to the back of the engine, you can't tell which one is leaking.

[tonycarreon]

Originally Posted by Richard E

Does a leaking rms pose a threat to the ims bearing?

from what i know of it ( admittedly little ) - no. a leaking rms poses a risk of losing oil. the leaking ims indicates the seal has gone and engine oil is getting into the bearing. just because your rms is leaking does not mean your ims is blown or that it's going to blow any quicker if the rms wasn't leaking.

[thstone]

As previously stated, the problem is that there is no way to know whether an oil leak/drip coming from between the engine and trans is RMS or IMS without dropping the trans. It could be one or the other or both.

And yes, there is evidence that when an IMS seal starts to fail it can leak oil.

Thus, its important to get to the root cause of any oil leak coming from the engine/trans area. Think of it as if you were bleeding a few drops - no one would walk around in that condition so correspondingly any oil leak from the engine/trans area should be thoroughly checked out.