Rear Main Seal Shot

[nrgins]

My son has a VW Golf that's about 15+ years old. He took it in for an oil change about two weeks ago, and today his car was totally out of oil.

He brought it in to the place, and they said that the rear main seal was shot, and that's why the oil was leaking. The cost to repair would be more than the car is worth.

I'm just wondering, since this happened right after they changed the oil; and since the rear main seal is near the oil plug: is it possible that they damaged the seal when they changed the oil? Just seems like kind of a coincidence that this happened right after they did an oil change.

They say that there was a problem with the manifold, which, according them, probably heated up and caused the seal to go. (They had mentioned this problem with the manifold in the past, but it didn't seem like an urgent repair, so it wasn't done.) Does that seem likely?

Thanks for any input!

Neil

[denisond3]

Was the car using oil a lot prior to having that shop do the oil change? And how many miles are on the engine? Rear main seals arent particularly close to the exhaust manifold, and are well protected by the bell housing of the transmission - so a 'problem' with the exhaust manifold does not seem at all likely to me. It is quite possible the shop didnt put a new plastic washer when they put the oil plug back in, and the oil dribbled out around an old squashed/defective washer. In this case a new oil plug and new washer would take car of it. Its also possible they didnt get the oil filter re-installed properly, and that let oil leak out. This type of leak would only be while the motor was running. Its also possible they only put in 3 quarts instead of 4, or even 2 quarts instead of 4. That would make it seem as if the car were using oil quickly. Im not saying the shop is being dishonest or has a hidden agenda; it can be human error and being in a hurry.
Most of the time a rear main seal will begin to leak slowly, getting worse month by month or year by year. For it to start leaking badly in a sudden way - that would be fairly unusual; though not impossible. If someone put Automatic Transmission Fluid into the engine, it could sofen up the main seals drastically, and they would start to leak fairly badly.
Im going by what my 90 Jetta looks like under the hood, as I think the driveline in Jettas and Golfs are very similar. Jettas just have a bigger trunk than a Golf.

[denisond3]

And its not likely they damaged the main seal while changing the oil. They could have horsed up the threads on the oil plug though.