jhb

I jacked up my car to do the oil and a trx fluid change and noticed lots of oil covering the plastic pan in front of the trx tray. I removed it and found a rubber shifter boot covered in oil. For lack of a better description, the part number is "993 424 294 00". When I pulled this back, oil poured from inside the boot. Is this normal?

I also noticed lots of oil leaking from the head cover screws on the left side of the engine onto the Catalytic converter/muffler. The CC/muffler is covered in some oil and has been smoking lately. Does this mean my head gasket has dried out and cracked, or do I have some other issue? The leaking definitely seems to be new.

The engine, to my knowledge, has never been serviced. It has 33k miles on it, and I have owned it for over 10 years. The engine has never been out of the car!

mpruden

Sounds like a couple classic leaks. Nothing major.

For the rubber shift boot oil, it sounds like your gearbox shaft seal needs to be replaced. Check out this link on Jackal's site for more detail.

The other leak sounds like lower valve cover gaskets. Lots of good DIYs out there for it. As usual, Bruce7 probably has the most detail in his DIY post.

jhb

Awesome, I'lll check it out. Wasn't sure what key words to search for.

nine9six

For future ref. the muffler/cat thing is actually called the heat exchanger. It sits just below the valve covers, yes?

jhb

Yes, now I know. Parts on order from sunset....

PelicanParts.com

We have a great amount of Tech Articles that may help assist you in any of your DIY maintenance fixes. Good luck!

-Luccia

jhb

I have just replaced the seal (999-113-404-40) and boot cover (993-424-294-00) and have a question about the orientation of the rubber boot cover for those who have done it. The rubber boot holes are not centered in the boot, as there is a "high" side and "low" side. Please see this link (part 19) to see what I mean. The parts catalog shows the high side as up, but when I did this, the boot rubbed the bolt connecting the shifter to the transmission. I rotated the boot cover so the "high" part was down, and it clears the bolt. I assume this is correct.

However, I noticed a 1/2 moon cut in the boot. I looked at the old boot I was replacing, and there is a 1/2 moon cut on it as well, but it is on the opposite side. My question is, did I cut the boot by not being careful or is it supposed to be there? I find it hard to believe I could introduce an almost identical tear in both boots, but I suspect I could have done so without noticing.

jhb

Consensus is it's torn. To those replacing it, be careful! Didn't take much to pinch and cut it.

And for the record, there is gear oil still leaking out from the new seal, and I have not lowered the cars from the jack stands yet. Oh well.

On to valve covers. Should be interesting removing the heat exchangers as they have never been out before. I already removed one valve cover but I think it's just better to do the proper job with the heat exchangers out.

jhb

I ordered the new boot from my local Stealer. I inspected the new boot cover when it arrived and guess, what? The new boot has the same 1/2 moon cut in it, but get this, in a different location than the one I received from Sunset. They are on different sides (top vs. bottom).

So I now assume this is a vent, not a cut, to allow air to enter and escape as the bellows expands and contracts when shifting.

But I am really confused as to why the same part has the vent in different locations. The boot I installed is with vent down, and this allows oil to drip out. The boot I just received from the dealer has the vent up, which would collect the oil but allow air to vent. It probably doesn't matter as once the boot fills it would leak oil anyway.