Replacement of 3.8 rear main seal

[Danarch]

My son took his 07 to the mechanic while we were on vacation. They said it was leaking from the upper oil pan. They weren’t sure if it was leaking from the rear main seal also. I called and asked if we replaced the upper oil pan gasket could the rear main seal be replaced later if it was leaking. They said to do the job right they should be replaced at the same time as the upper oil pan should be dropped some when doing the rear main seal. After doing some research and watching some YouTube video’s it seems the rear main seal could be replaced without dropping the upper oil pan.

Has anyone replaced the rear main seal and had success without dropping upper oil pan?

I’d like to replace the upper oil pan seal and see what happens.

As noted about it is an 07, has about 85-90K miles on it.

 

[Karlow]

No, the rear seal is attached to the rear of the bock. To replace it, you need to pull the engine or the tranny.
You can replace the pan gaskets with no problem.

 

[Danarch]

Thanks, yes I’m trying to avoid removing the tranny if not needed. If we replace the upper oil pan gasket and no leak I’m good. Just don’t want to do it twice if it needs to be dropped to replace the rear main seal, but from what I see seems they are pretty independent of each other except where the rear main seal assembly sits at the bottom. They claim it should be dropped because of where it hits the upper oil pan in the areas circled in red.