oil pan gasket leak or rear main seal leak? please

[windeye]

Car is 2007 Mazda3i, 37k miles, automatic.
There has been a slow oil leak from the vent hole where the engine meets transmission. Went to dealer 4 times, they finally said it's rear main seal. Car is still under powertrain warantee, but I really don't like them tear everything apart.

The oil pan has one side abutting the trans, I am suspecting it's likely the oil pan gasket. It's really hard to believe the rear main seal is leaking at this mileage (37k), car is garaged and never driven hard.

How could you tell if the oil is leaking from oil pan vs from rear main seal? thanks.

 

[tig1]

Doesn't really matter. Let the dealer do his thing and fix it.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I agree with Tig1, let the dealer fix the oil leak. If they screw up then they will be responsible for it.

 

[mechtech2]

Let them figure it out.
Are you kidding?

 

[crazyoildude]

let the dealer do it and make sure you do it before the warranty is up.... Make sure everything is in writing so you dont get screwed...

 

[ahoier]

yep, do it now and make sure you keep all your paper trail, incase something related to this "fix up" turns up while you are out of warranty.....if I recall, if there's a major repair done while under warranty, if something were to "spring up" from that same "fix" that they fixed while under warranty, it should "roll over" per se, even after the warranty period, since there was already a claim on the seal.....

Sit back and let them do the detective work, they get paid to do that. Enjoy their stale coffee?

heh.