guy at the dealership tells me he needs to replace the rear oil pan seal and that he has to drop the transmission to get to it. Costing about $1000 to fix and for labor. Is this necessary? He says its going to keep leaking oil till I get it fixed. Any of this sound familiar?

 

to change the oil pan gasket, you dont need to drop the trans , maybe he was talking about the rear main crank seal ?,for that you need to take the trans out , but $ 1000 is a bit much ,unless he's going to put a clutch kit in too

 

If he has to drop the trans, that's the rear MAIN seal. There is no "rear oil pan seal." It is a lot of labor but it is all fairly straightforward; if you have good tools, a good place to work, and a lot of time, you could probably do it yourself.

 

Yes the transmission has to come out, which is not such a big deal actually. I agree $1000 is a lot. If it's manual you should be getting a new clutch for that price too. There is no extra labor to replace the clutch at the same time.

You balance that against what it costs to just let it leak and keep buying oil.