Oil Leak - Rear Main?

[EnsignSquidward]

Hello all,

I hope I can get advice from some of the more tenured folks on here as well as describe my situation to help others out in the future.

My truck is a 2021 Ram Rebel purchased in February. It has just over 3k miles. After starting it up this morning and backing out of my garage I noticed oil on the ground. After inspection I found a slight oil drip coming from what appears to be either the rear main seal or the most rear portion of the oil pan.

After wiping off and driving for a few miles I noticed the oil returned. Any experience on this?

 

[djevox]

Rear main seal is a good assumption. No matter what it is, it looks like it’s time for some warranty work

 

[EnsignSquidward]

Thanks for the reply. I have an appointment at the dealership tomorrow, I'll post about how it goes.

 

[Fatherof3]

Welcome to the forum . Sorry to hear about your problem . Hope everything goes smoothly for you .

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

Thanks for the reply. I have an appointment at the dealership tomorrow, I'll post about how it goes.

Well, how did it go?

 

[EnsignSquidward]

Appointment at the dealership went about as well as it could have. Once the truck was up on the lift, it was pretty easy to see an oil trail coming from the driver's side of the engine, above the starter.

They checked tightness on the valve cover, oil fill cap, and pressure washed all the oil away. Technician said he found a pretty good amount of oil under the plastic engine cover near the fill cap, probably spilled when oil was changed or fill cap was just loose.

I had the oil changed at 700 miles and didn't drive it much until my recent cross country trip where I racked up about 1500 miles in two days.

I've driven it 100 miles since the visit and have not seen any additional oil.

 

[djevox]

Appointment at the dealership went about as well as it could have. Once the truck was up on the lift, it was pretty easy to see an oil trail coming from the driver's side of the engine, above the starter.

They checked tightness on the valve cover, oil fill cap, and pressure washed all the oil away. Technician said he found a pretty good amount of oil under the plastic engine cover near the fill cap, probably spilled when oil was changed or fill cap was just loose.

I had the oil changed at 700 miles and didn't drive it much until my recent cross country trip where I racked up about 1500 miles in two days.

I've driven it 100 miles since the visit and have not seen any additional oil.

That’s some devious oil! If you look at the left and the right of where it’s leaking on the bell housing, it looks dry. I guess it is close to Halloween though, so you’re RAM wanted to give you a fright.

 

[c3k]

That's a win. Much easier to just clean some oil from a spill than swap a new rear main seal.

So...I gotta ask: who did the oil service that may have led to that?

 

[Idahoktm]

That's a win. Much easier to just clean some oil from a spill than swap a new rear main seal.

So...I gotta ask: who did the oil service that may have led to that?

...and why in the wide world of sports did he get the oil changed at 700 miles?

 

[mikeru82]

...and why in the wide world of sports did he get the oil changed at 700 miles?

I can't speak as to why the OP changed his oil at 700 miles, but I always change my oil at around 1000 miles. Been doing that since the first brand new car I ever bought (2012 WRX). For me it's peace of mind. I can put in the oil and filter of my choice, along with installing a Fumoto valve, and sometimes a remote oil filter kit. The Fumoto valve lets me easily take oil samples to send in for analysis whenever I want, without waiting until I have nearly 10k miles on the engine.

 

[EnsignSquidward]

Thanks for the replies.
I had the oil changed in Hawaii after I performed the engine break-in procedure out of the owners manual, which is kind of hard to do when the speed limit on most of the island is 35 mph, haha. I wanted to switch to PUP and read, mostly on this forum, that it's good to change the oil early the first time due to wear products from engine break-in accumulating in the filter. That's where it's supposed to go but with an unknown amount of wear products, it can void mileage assumptions for more routine intervals.
Should have changed the oil myself instead of using the dealership voucher to get a couple free oil changes after buying.