Three letters that strike fear in a 996/986 owner's heart. Sadly, I'm the latest member of the RMS leak club. I noticed a few black spots on my garage floor while washing the Carrera Saturday, and the dealer confirmed it was a RMS leak. They use a tool to test if the crankshaft is concentric to the opening for the seal, to determine if a new engine is needed. Mine passed the test, so they just needed to replace the seal. Here's a few pix for those (like me) who had heard of this evil thing, but weren't sure what it was.

The transmission, clutch and flywheel are removed, exposing the front of the engine:


Close-up showing the crankshaft (silver circle at center, with 8 small holes for the flywheel bolts). The RMS is the black circle around the crankshaft with a bunch of dimples in it:


The culprit--the rear main seal:


Rector in Burlingame once again providing excellent service.

 

Welcome to the club.
Mine went at 4700 miles and I'm at 10,100 now and everything looks good.
How many miles for you?
Check the tops of your exhaust tips to make sure they didn't scratch them during the process. I made the dealer give me new ones.
Ciao

 

7,000 miles.

 

Great pictures. But the third one shows your original seal after it has been pulled out of the crankshaft bore. The seal does not look like that when it is in a motor. It is damaged in the third picture because it has been pulled out.

There is no way grab the seal so it it can be removed. So holes are drilled in the metal back side and a sheet metal screw inserted in the hole. Then what looks like a dent puller is attached to the screw and the seal is yanked out. That is why the seal is deformed in the third pic.

Great pics. Tell the mechanic to shove some cork in there before the new seal is installed. Or maybe teflon tape from Home Depot.

 

Poursha,

You mean crankshaft, you kept saying camshaft..........

the dealer got your car in quickly, how long was it in the shop?
Is it back on the road?

 

Yes--I guess I was typing too fast...

I brought it in Monday without an appointment, and they started working on it that evening. The RMS has been replaced, and now they're waiting for the parts (amp, CD changer & radio) to replace the sound system which has had gremlins from the beginning. Hopefully tomorrow...

 

Did they check your DM flywheel or clutch while it was apart?

 

Yes--the clutch and flywheel were fine--I looked at them myself. From the pix you can see that it appears that the leak wasn't that old (after all, the car only has 7,000 miles on it).

 

Those pics are great , lots of detail

Thanks, Roy

 

I guess that is the same seal that went on my 01'
Whenever I would pin the gas I would mist my friend behind me with oil.
Seem's to be fixed now.

 

Update--the intermediate shaft seal was also leaking so they replaced it.

Plus both doors window lift mechanisms replaced due to the famous streak marks on the windows (I've had this in all 3 of my 996 Carreras).

Oh--and the amplifier, head unit and CD changer are being replaced today due to various issues.

 

wow, quite a list there. I'll be bringing mine in on Friday.

 

Poursha you aren'y alone. I just had the same done in my '03 at 8400 miles, but the symptoms started well before that.

 

NT