Help!! 915 output shaft seal leak

[Mach.925]

Originally Posted by gled49

Back in post #7, see what I mean. ��

I'm a believer!!

[stownsen914]

You'd think the Porsche OEM seals would be available from some other source. I mean, Porsche isn't manufacturing the seals ...

[kevingross]

Vaguely interesting topic! I haven't had a problem with the single-lip Elring seals, either in their kits or as individual parts. The double-lipped version is a nice bit of insurance, no argument, against debris getting in. However, looking at the design of the outer lip, it is for debris and not oil sealing. The inner lip with its tighter design and gaiter provides the oil sealing.

I make a practice of checking the condition of the shaft where the seal lip rides. Often I will find they have a groove worn at that point, and that can cause seeping. This is especially common with the input shaft. There are a couple of fixes for this. One is to locate the seal at a slightly different depth, so its lip rides on an undamaged bit of the shaft. Another is to install an SKF Speedi Sleeve on the shaft, pretty cool fix.

When assembling, be sure to pre-lubricate the shaft where the seal rides. I use a transmission assembly lube, but a smear of gear oil will do the job. Cheers,

[oh snap]

Great timing as I'm about to replace these seals. I guess I'll pony up for oem

[Mach.925]

Originally Posted by kevingross

Vaguely interesting topic! I haven't had a problem with the single-lip Elring seals, either in their kits or as individual parts. The double-lipped version is a nice bit of insurance, no argument, against debris getting in. However, looking at the design of the outer lip, it is for debris and not oil sealing. The inner lip with its tighter design and gaiter provides the oil sealing.

I make a practice of checking the condition of the shaft where the seal lip rides. Often I will find they have a groove worn at that point, and that can cause seeping. This is especially common with the input shaft. There are a couple of fixes for this. One is to locate the seal at a slightly different depth, so its lip rides on an undamaged bit of the shaft. Another is to install an SKF Speedi Sleeve on the shaft, pretty cool fix.

When assembling, be sure to pre-lubricate the shaft where the seal rides. I use a transmission assembly lube, but a smear of gear oil will do the job. Cheers,

Thanks Kevin, good information... I suspected the extra lip might actually serve another purpose as it does not fit tightly around the shaft. In any case, my leaks were completely eliminated when I installed the oem seals. I'm wondering if there was simply a bad batch of the elring - I went through four of them and they all leaked and were purchased at the same time. Seems like other folks have had similar problems in the past, but who knows. I carefully inspected the output shafts and they were in excellent shape - only 61k miles on the car. Thanks for the Speedi Sleeve suggestion... I think I'll order just to have in inventory.