How hard is it to change RMS seal?
 

Hi, took my boxster out for the first drive of the year today, and when i arrived at work i saw that it dripped oil like crazy from it, checked under and it came from between the engine and gearbox.

How hard is it to change the RMS seal for someone that has never worked on a car before, can't afford to turn it into the workshop :(

If there are any links to articles about changing this, i would be very happy.

If its dripping a lot it's most likely the imsb. A wet imsb usually indicates a failing imsb and one that's dripping a lot is usually towards the end of its life. On the other hand I had an imsb flange drip for 5 years. It was very minimal, maybe the size of a quarter when cardboard was placed underneath and my bearing was nearly perfect.

On the other hand….

I had my IMS drip ONE drop. When I got it apart the IMS was toast.

The Rear Main Seal however only took a few minutes and didn't cost much either…because I was already there. To get there you will need several bolts that cannot be re-used, the RMS of course and a couple jack stands with the time to do it right.

There are several write ups on "How To" do it but it is NOT an easy task, unless you have provable mechanical skills. Even IF you do, you can run into issues. Fortunately, this Forum was here for me.

I used 5 sets of instructions….Bentley book (which ironically does not have IMS/RMS repairs in there), Pelican, Meir and a couple other write ups from people here who have been there.

Found out it was from the top, started new topic about that instead.

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/43844-oil-top-engine.html#post333743

The top of my engine looks like this too, due to a split oil breather pipe!
Its pretty difficult to get the oil out too thanks to the inlet manifold - maybe use a baster to draw the oil out?
Clean everything down and check again for leaks.