2003 Hyundai Elantra Front Crank Seal

2ADAVE

MEMBER
2003 HYUNDAI ELANTRA
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
98,900 MILES

Front crank seal seeming very quickly came out of engine, noticed smoke in rear view mirror, pulled car over right away, oil light came on immediatley shut off to check oil and found hugh puddle of engine oil under right front of car, and no oil left in crank case. Took front of engine all apart found front crank seal pushed out. Installed new seal & timing belt, put in 2 litres of oil just to start engine before completely reassembling, and ran for about 1 minute, then turned off finish assembly, fill crank case with oil start engine again ran for another 3-4 minutes and suddenly a large puddle oil again, took all aprt again to find new seal pushed out of housing just as OEM seal was? What next?

1 Reply

MIDNIGHTGRAY

MEMBER
1 POST

Most likely the thrust washer failed and caused the crankshaft to walk, popping out the oil seal. That's why the oil seal popped out after you replaced it. At the very least, there's going to be some internal parts that have to be replaced. Replacing the oil seal won't fix the problem. Same identical thing happened to my 2003 with 70K miles. I had it towed to the Hyundai dealer, they diagnosed the problem, replaced the short block under warranty, and it's as good as new now. If you're the orginal owner, you should be covered under the 100K powertrain warranty. You'll likely have to provide enough documentation to prove that you changed the oil regularly. They showed me how the thrust washer failed and it appears there was a design problem. They've since modified the design to prevent the washer from failing. Hyundai is aware of this problem because it's not all that rare. Don't wait. Talk with your Hyundai dealer about the problem. If you didn't have the timing belt replaced yet, you may be able to have it replaced for just the cost of the belt like I did. Good luck.