I was talking to a buddy recently about a 2000 4runner that he purchased. The car had been previously repossessed. He said that shortly after he got it he noticed it had a leak. The car has something like 68,000 miles on it. Anyways, he found out that the rear main seal was bad and had it replaced soon after. His mechanic said that whoever had the car previously had not taken very good care of it and that the seal had dried out. Supposedly the seal formed a groove on the crankshaft. He asked me about it but I didn't know too much about it so I thought I'd ask some people that possible do. Should he sell the car or do any of you think it will last for a while? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

I would get a full mechanic's evaluation before I unloaded a recently purchased vehicle. A couple things worry me about this situation though:

1. The vehicle was repossessed previously. That can be indicative of an irresponsible owner (i.e. maintenance).

2. The mechanic said the vehicle was poorly maintained. That would also make me think about my next move.

Get a list of all the known problems and post them here, that will help a lot.

 

I'll have to talk to him some more, but from what I gathered the concern was the crankshaft. I know that in order to replace the crankshaft it requires pulling the engine. The seal supposedly damaged the crankshaft and created a groove in it and there were also some deposits of some sort on on the crankshaft. I believe they cleaned the crankshaft best they could and recommended he put some engine conditioner in it. I'll have to get some more details. But will some grooves in the crankshaft cause it to fail? Thanks

 

I'm not sure how a main seal will dry out if there is oil in the crankcase all the time and the vehicle is driven regularly.

A groove in the crankshaft isn't uncommon. It's easily fixed with a redi-sleeve. The labor to get at the rear of the engine to install it is the biggest issue with the repair. The transmission has to come out.