Hello,

I just finished replacing the timing belt, water pump, accessory drive belts, etc. On my '97 Honda Civic. I put it all together and it runs perfect.

However, I think I may have made a terrible, terrible mistake...

I replaced the front crankshaft seal, I removed the old one easily enough, and installed the new one in the following manner. I cleaned the crankshaft and oil seal bore. Then I lubricated with clean engine oil the new seal I.D. and O.D... I put the new seal on the crankshaft and it just slid in by hand pretty easy. Now looking back I realize that the O.D. of the seal and the bore on the engine should have been dry... How F***ed am I ??

I drove the car for about 4 miles, came home, let it idle in the driveway for about 5 minutes and did an oil change. When I was underneath the car I saw about 4-5 drops of oil on the ground right below the front oil seal. I looked up and saw a drop still on the lowest point of the timing belt cover.

However I also know the entire oil pan gasket has to be replaced, because ever since I had the car ( a few months now) all around the oil pan is just completely covered with oil. So the oil on the ground could be just coming from the oil pan gasket being bad.


So basically I need advice,

What could happen here, will the oil seal spin in its bore?
Will it get blown out?

Should I absolutely not drive the car, and go disassemble everything again (many hours of labour) just to see what is going on and if there is oil on the timing belt?

Should I keep driving it and just check the oil level a couple times a day?

Thanks in advance.

-Pat.