I recently began chasing oil leaks on a friends 99 Civic. After changing the oil pan gasket, front seal, valve cover gasket the leak remained. I removed the transmission and found the rear main leaking. When the seal was removed, the crank had a groove worn in it where the seal rides. I looked locally to find a replacement that relocated the seal lip but had no luck. I purchased a Honda factory seal and installed it to a different depth in the housing to move the seal lip but this leaked also. Any ideas on locating a repair part or procedure for this without replacing the crankshaft. The engine only has about 90K on it!

 

The Seal have to be even with the face of that end plate, Any higher the Flywheel will hit it, and any lower the oil will leak out.

 

I saw that the flywheel would hit the seal if it was not driven to the bottom of the plate so I ground the lip off the backside of the flywheel so it would clear the seal installed in the new position.

 

All u do is use a 3/8 extension and tap the seal until the extension it the edge around the seal so that its even. THe Groove is normal

 

The last seal was installed in the manner you have suggested and has leaked from startup. All of the rear main seals I have installed on other vehicles have been installed by pressing the seal in until it bottoms against the back of the plate. Also, this is the first Honda crankshaft I have seen with a groove "worn" in it by the seal. A seal with the sealing lip relocated or one having two sealing lips I believe would fix this problem. Has anyone heard of such a part from maybe Jackson Racing or other performance dealer?