First: I love my mechanic. He's been doing a good job and treating me well as hell for 15yrs. I even consider the proximity of his shop when I look at a future house to buy. He's been around for at least 25 yrs, with another friend going to him for that long. But, he said he hasn't done a front crank seal on a Jeep before.
With that said: I was going to try to tackle it. However, the time to rent or buy a harmonic balancer puller and running into things a first-timer would struggle with and take more time, I figured I'd spin money in the economy with a trusted mechanic.
My front crank seal was ONLY seeping and I wanted to get ahead of it, before I started to do 3-4 hr trips to Moab. Don't want to go far out enough where it started slinging oil.
Dropped off my 07 JKU and a Felpro front crank seal to him this morning. I thought it would take 3-4 hrs at the most. He calls me 6 hrs later and said he messed up the first seal as it turned cockeyed when he tapped it in.
So, he had another one delivered. After he buttoned up the 2nd one, he started it and it started "spurting oil" between the seal and the crankshaft. My first thought - did he scratch the crank when he took the other one off?
He then told me he'd really inspect it tomorrow and get a new seal to figure out what's going on. He hinted at "maybe it's the crank shaft" and my stomach turned to knots from frustration.
My Jeep ran pretty damn good w/o any leaks. The crank shaft seal was seeping a little, never producing a drop of oil on the garage floor.
Now, I'm frustrated as hell.
My initial instinct was he damaged my crank when taking out the old seal.
Maybe he just got a bad seal from the supplier that brought the 2nd one.
He took a 2-3 hr job (if that) and I'm either gonna have to fork out $$$$ for a new crankshaft or just have him put it in leaking and go trade my baby in. I just got it regeared (break-in inspection scheduled for this Friday at the off-road shop) and now I might have to trade it in? F@#*!!!!!!
I hate when people read the internet or watch YouTube videos and tell me how to do my job.... and I don't want to tell him that I've seen YouTube videos and saw on wranglerjkforum.net that first-timers have done this successfully without issues. But, I guess next time I'll take a day off and take my time and do the work myself. I'd rather be frustrated at my Jeep than I would at him (hard to find a fair mechanic).
Now, if I get it without leaking. I'll be checking under there weekly to make sure it doesn't shit, always doubting if he did it right.
Thanks for letting me vent. This is why I love you guys.
With that said: I was going to try to tackle it. However, the time to rent or buy a harmonic balancer puller and running into things a first-timer would struggle with and take more time, I figured I'd spin money in the economy with a trusted mechanic.
My front crank seal was ONLY seeping and I wanted to get ahead of it, before I started to do 3-4 hr trips to Moab. Don't want to go far out enough where it started slinging oil.
Dropped off my 07 JKU and a Felpro front crank seal to him this morning. I thought it would take 3-4 hrs at the most. He calls me 6 hrs later and said he messed up the first seal as it turned cockeyed when he tapped it in.
So, he had another one delivered. After he buttoned up the 2nd one, he started it and it started "spurting oil" between the seal and the crankshaft. My first thought - did he scratch the crank when he took the other one off?
He then told me he'd really inspect it tomorrow and get a new seal to figure out what's going on. He hinted at "maybe it's the crank shaft" and my stomach turned to knots from frustration.
My Jeep ran pretty damn good w/o any leaks. The crank shaft seal was seeping a little, never producing a drop of oil on the garage floor.
Now, I'm frustrated as hell.
My initial instinct was he damaged my crank when taking out the old seal.
Maybe he just got a bad seal from the supplier that brought the 2nd one.
He took a 2-3 hr job (if that) and I'm either gonna have to fork out $$$$ for a new crankshaft or just have him put it in leaking and go trade my baby in. I just got it regeared (break-in inspection scheduled for this Friday at the off-road shop) and now I might have to trade it in? F@#*!!!!!!
I hate when people read the internet or watch YouTube videos and tell me how to do my job.... and I don't want to tell him that I've seen YouTube videos and saw on wranglerjkforum.net that first-timers have done this successfully without issues. But, I guess next time I'll take a day off and take my time and do the work myself. I'd rather be frustrated at my Jeep than I would at him (hard to find a fair mechanic).
Now, if I get it without leaking. I'll be checking under there weekly to make sure it doesn't shit, always doubting if he did it right.
Thanks for letting me vent. This is why I love you guys.
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