FirePower
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2017
- Posts
- 23
- Reaction score
- 2
- Ram Year
- 2003
- Engine
- 5.7 hemi
Hey guys, happy to be a new member.
Truck is a 2003 ram 1500 qc hemi.
A while back my 5.7 engine blew and I decided to go with a surefire reman from autozone because of the 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.
After only a little over 13k miles, I began to notice oil spots on my garage floor. After tirelessly looking under the car trying to find the oil leak, I finally took it to my mechanic after I couldn't locate it.
He takes some time to look it over, and tells me that the leak is coming from the front crankshaft seal. He says that with a brand new motor with that little of mileage, that there must be something wrong with the motor and how it was assembled, and that the most likely culprit is that the crankshaft is off somehow.
He said that while the seal is cheap and the labor to replace it is of moderate cost, the fact that a reman motor with such low mileage should not have a leaking crank seal for any reason, and that unless the problem is fixed which is causing it, putting in a new seal will only bandage the problem temporarily and the seal will begin to once again leak soon after because whatever is causing it to leak in the first place will persist.
Other people have told me it could be an issue with the harmonic balancer/crank pulley/front cover.
I just want to be sure of what it is because if the crankshaft is poorly assembled and I need a new motor, I don't want to bandaid the problem with a new seal like the crook warranty company is trying to get to do and then the seal goes bad once again after my warranty is up because the actual problem is persisting.
I just wanted to come here and sign up for a forum for the first time to see of any of you guys have any insight or advice. Perhaps someone has had this experience before. I looked up countless posts on other forums for multiple cars utilizing the 5.7 motor and found quite a few posts about the crank seal leaking, but they were all about how to install a new one. I didn't find any that actually explained WHY it might be happening.
The truck is not modded, boosted or driven hard whatsoever. I never go over 3.5k rpms.
Thanks in advance for any input
Truck is a 2003 ram 1500 qc hemi.
A while back my 5.7 engine blew and I decided to go with a surefire reman from autozone because of the 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.
After only a little over 13k miles, I began to notice oil spots on my garage floor. After tirelessly looking under the car trying to find the oil leak, I finally took it to my mechanic after I couldn't locate it.
He takes some time to look it over, and tells me that the leak is coming from the front crankshaft seal. He says that with a brand new motor with that little of mileage, that there must be something wrong with the motor and how it was assembled, and that the most likely culprit is that the crankshaft is off somehow.
He said that while the seal is cheap and the labor to replace it is of moderate cost, the fact that a reman motor with such low mileage should not have a leaking crank seal for any reason, and that unless the problem is fixed which is causing it, putting in a new seal will only bandage the problem temporarily and the seal will begin to once again leak soon after because whatever is causing it to leak in the first place will persist.
Other people have told me it could be an issue with the harmonic balancer/crank pulley/front cover.
I just want to be sure of what it is because if the crankshaft is poorly assembled and I need a new motor, I don't want to bandaid the problem with a new seal like the crook warranty company is trying to get to do and then the seal goes bad once again after my warranty is up because the actual problem is persisting.
I just wanted to come here and sign up for a forum for the first time to see of any of you guys have any insight or advice. Perhaps someone has had this experience before. I looked up countless posts on other forums for multiple cars utilizing the 5.7 motor and found quite a few posts about the crank seal leaking, but they were all about how to install a new one. I didn't find any that actually explained WHY it might be happening.
The truck is not modded, boosted or driven hard whatsoever. I never go over 3.5k rpms.
Thanks in advance for any input