TheSamba.com :: View topic - Rear Main Oil Seal: Elring VS Victor Rinze

Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:42 pm

Who makes the better rear main oil seal these days?

Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:56 pm

the one that dosent leek for you. there are also some duel seals out there.I havent used any of them but they might be ok....or not,I use the ones in the earing kits. :shock: :roll: :wink:

Fri Feb 27, 2015 7:02 pm

VW engines DO NOT have a rear main oil seal. They have a front main seal. Look how the engine is installed in the car. The flywheel points to the front of the car therefor the seal behind the flywheel is the front of the engine. The pulley end is the rear of a VW engine.

Elring is the only brand to use.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:41 pm

Well if your going to get all technical now... :roll: :lol:

Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:47 pm

use the red ones (I don't remember the brand :lol: )

Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:49 pm

modok wrote: use the red ones (I don't remember the brand :lol: )

Silicone?

Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:50 pm

yep
Lately I order the rear seal and flywheel O-ring from CB. They have a nice flywheel o-ring while the ones in the kits are very questionable looking. :shock:

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:07 pm

Cool. I can find silicone flywheel end seals made in silicone. All the fan/pulley end seals I have come across are nitrile. Is this ok? I figure it leads an easyer life because of the lower surface speed at the point of contact compared to the much larger flywheel end main. Oh, and probably should have mentioned, T4.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:09 pm

Red Elring... never a problem.

Just call it the "flywheel seal" and make everyone happy.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:18 pm

I would not worry about the pulley too much, any name brand seal should be good, nitrile is fine.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:20 pm

Haha, sure, works for me. I got a place locally that can get the Elring silicone flywheel seal. I'll just have to make sure it is the 12mm deep version, not the skinnier one. Does the material matter as much for the fan/pulley crank seal? There are plenty of nitrile seals around for it, but I have not seen any silicone ones for that application.

Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:21 pm

modok wrote: I would not worry about the pulley too much, any name brand seal should be good, nitrile is fine.

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the help!

Sat Feb 28, 2015 5:06 pm

I use the red Elring seals. The problem with the Victor reinz seals.....is not the build quality. Its a little bit of a design issue.
From what I have seen of the bi-material type 4 seal....the lip width is a little different and they needa wider tighter hose spring.
Because of the slight different sealing width I run them a little proud of the case with like a .025" snap ring for a spacer underneath for them to seat against.
In this way they choke up on the crank snout a little higher and seal tighter. Ray

Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:20 pm

Quote: VW engines DO NOT have a rear main oil seal. They have a front main seal. Look how the engine is installed in the car. The flywheel points to the front of the car therefor the seal behind the flywheel is the front of the engine. The pulley end is the rear of a VW engine.

Quite a few suppliers used to call this the rear main seal. Technically I suppose that is wrong, but it is what they used to call it.

Sun Mar 29, 2015 1:35 am

I took a trip over to the Vanagon and BayWindow forums to see what they were using these days, and apparently Sabo makes a high quality seal, and is what VW uses as a stock replacement. Turns out that the Sabo seal wasn't any more expensive, so I just ordered one of those. Supposedly they are a better material, have a heavier spring, and fit a bit more snug in the case. Proper 12mm depth as well.

Sun Mar 29, 2015 1:46 am

Vanapplebomb wrote: I took a trip over to the Vanagon and BayWindow forums to see what they were using these days, and apparently Sabo makes a high quality seal, and is what VW uses as a stock replacement. Turns out that the Sabo seal wasn't any more expensive, so I just ordered one of those. Supposedly they are a better material, have a heavier spring, and fit a bit more snug in the case. Proper 12mm depth as well.

This came up on STF not too long ago. Here is an interesting article about the SABO seal. http://www.gowesty.com/library_article.php?id=535

Sun Mar 29, 2015 7:43 am

I call it the rear main seal as it's the main seal at the rear of my bus

Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:59 am

The SABO seals are a floropolymer (sp?) not silicone like the elring or left over tires like the reinz.
I have used them all successfully.

The sabo seals generally don't even require a tool to install and are overall the better seals, imo.
Their full engine gasket kit is the nicer of the bunch too.

Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:08 pm

Elring is used by Porche and Mercedes manufacturers. You can't go wrong with what the makers use I'm sure they have done extensive studies. The product should be used to seal the case only.

Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:35 pm

I can still buy OE main oil seals from VW parts dept so will continue to use them until they run out ;)