I recently replaced the clutch and flywheel on my 02 TDI Jetta and since the car had 275,000 miles on it I decided to replace the rear main seal. Big mistake. I was extremely careful installing the new seal dry and am pretty sure that I did it correctly. Today (after about 200 miles) I noticed a small puddle under the skidplate. Fearing the worst I took off the skidplate to have a look and the new rear main seal is leaking. I'm not looking forward to redoing this job but even worse, I can't imagine what I did wrong the last time. Someone posted that they had a new seal that was leaking and eventually stopped. Is this a realistic hope? If I postpone it for a while am I risking ruining my clutch plate by not changing it out immediately? Anyone have any tips on how to replace this correctly? Here is what I did, I left the white install piece in place, put liquid permatex on the bottom of the carrier where it meets the oil pan. I tightened the carrier bolts to push the install blank out. Perhaps I didn't use enough permatex on the bottom edge of the carrier?
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?