So I was under the front end of the Rogue the other day and I see a little drip hanging from where it looked like the tranny and engine meet up. It didn't look like a huge leak, but a leak non the less.

So I dropped by Nissan today and had them put it up on the lift. They had me come out and take a look under the car as well...clearly leaking.

Sooooo....long story short is at 8200 miles on a 2012 Nissan Rogue S Special Edition I have to have a warranty repair done. They said it is the rear main seal and that they will have to separate engine from transmission.

I am glad that it happened under warranty and I don't have to pay for anything, but I am pissed that it happened in the first place. Not to mention that they are going to have to separate the engine and tranny. I pretty much always look at it like the factory setup is mostly "optimal" for the parts/configuration. When there is a repair and you have to open things up, the integrity that the part had is somewhat compromised in my opinion. What I mean is this.....do I really think the dude working at Nissan is going to bolt everything up as perfectly and correctly as the nissan machines/robots/workers at the Nissan plant?

At any rate, I am just rambling now. I am a little pissed off that the Rogue doesn't even have 10k miles and already I am taking it in for a warranty repair.

Black B15 wrote:Sooooo....long story short is at 8200 miles on a 2012 Nissan Rogue S Special Edition I have to have a warranty repair done. They said it is the rear main seal and that they will have to separate engine from transmission.

you never know how something will work, until you test it. especially with seals & bearings. my brand new infiniti had a bearing start going in the tranny. got a brand new tranny from japan in 2 weeks.

things happen.

ImStricken wrote:

Black B15 wrote:Sooooo....long story short is at 8200 miles on a 2012 Nissan Rogue S Special Edition I have to have a warranty repair done. They said it is the rear main seal and that they will have to separate engine from transmission.

you never know how something will work, until you test it. especially with seals & bearings. my brand new infiniti had a bearing start going in the tranny. got a brand new tranny from japan in 2 weeks.

things happen.

I know, and at least it is covered under warranty. I am just glad that I am the type of person that plays around with the car and can catch a small leak like that before it got bad. From the small area of the leak, it doesn't look like it was leaking very long at all.

hmm... my Special edition is at 15k. Gonna check it out.

rdub2k4 wrote:hmm... my Special edition is at 15k. Gonna check it out.

I would too if I were you. I don't know what happened or why it failed, I guess it is just one of those things where sometimes they fail at 8000 miles and sometimes at 80,000.

I am hoping all goes smoothly the next couple of days. Also curious to see what they get me as a loaner. I laughingly asked if they could hook me up with that (me pointing towards one) GT-R right there. They thought that was pretty funny.

Quick thread revival. I thought I needed to add a few things to this post that were substantial. First, Pinnacle Nissan was really top notch in the speed and professionalism in reference to replacing the rear main seal. I asked the Nissan guy if this happened often on this model of vehicle and he said it almost NEVER happens on a vehicle with 8000 miles on it.

So fast forward about a month and today I am pulling into a bakery and I see a white Rogue parked there. I go inside and the owner instantly strikes up a conversation that goes like this....

HIM: Hey, I like your Rogue...What year is it?
ME: It's a 2012, thanks.
HIM: Mine is a 2011 and you know what happened??? At 8000 my rear main seal started leaking!
ME: WHAT??? SERIOUSLY? MINE TOO!!!!
HIM: I asked the service guy at Pinnacle Nissan if it was normal for this vehicle to have such a failure at only 8000 miles and he said it was NOT normal.
ME: HOLY CRAP....that is exactly where I took my Rogue and that is what the guy said to me too.

LONG STORY SHORT....check your frigging rear main seals folks and see if you are leaking. Yeah right, doesn't happen very often. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES that a guy is going to approach me, out of nowhere, with the exact same failure at the exact same mileage? I about fell over when he said it, truthfully. I think I should go out and buy a lottery ticket, because the universe doesn't usually match up that well.

I am curious how many other failures are similar and if it would substantial enough for Nissan North America to issue a recall. I would be extremely upset if this happened out of warranty, so I guess I am lucky it happened at 8000 miles.

Where should I look for a leakage? You said "the place where tranny meets the engine", but I don't understand exactly where to look at.

Qashqai wrote:Where should I look for a leakage? You said "the place where tranny meets the engine", but I don't understand exactly where to look at.

I'll see if I can get you a pic or something posted to help reference this a little better.

Here...I knew these pictures would come in handy. This was taken while laying on my back....as such the photo is upside down.

So you would be looking for that little black metal cover piece....RIGHT THERE is where the leak was.

do you know what they did to fix your problem? did/do you hear any tiny tapping/rattling noises in your engine?

ImStricken wrote:do you know what they did to fix your problem? did/do you hear any tiny tapping/rattling noises in your engine?

Changed out the rear main seal and topped the tranny fluid off is what they told me. I don't really hear any ticking noises or anything, before or after the part was replaced.

Can you consider this as a leakage? 2011 Rogue at 29700 km (18500 miles)





Just keep in mind, for the last 5-6 months, during winter, I pressure washed under the engine to prevent salt accumulation every two weeks. So if there is a leak, it may be washed out.

You know what, it actually does kind of look like some kind of fluid leaked at some point, because there are clearly stains from something. And if you have pressure washed it underneath, that would make sense that there is nothing dripping right now.

Have you noticed any transmission related issues or had to backfill any transmission fluid?

I checked the CVT fluid level three-four months ago and it was OK. Will check tomorrow. Next week I will go to the service for an oil change. I will ask them to check. If they said it is normal, then I will properly clean that area with an engine cleaner and watch for a fresh leak ( no more pressure wash for a while). Whenever it leaks, I will go to service and show. Actually right now it is difficult to say, especially compared to Black B15's leakage.

Well, I have a strange feeling for the last few weeks. I can't explain exactly what it feels like, but sometimes like a loosewheel, sometimes as if the ball bearings are failed and the car grinds the axle...It can be the CVT fluid? who knows? I will checkthe fluid level tomorrow...

I looked under mine too, and it looks like there may be a small leak around the black seal of that black piece. If it's not leaking it at least looks like oil seeping through the black gasket. I'm going to keep an eye on it. I also have a 2012 and just passed 9k miles.

Can you provide any more information? was the whole seal leaking or just around the black part? How bad was the leak? ( kind of hard to tell from pictures how much it was leaking)

Is it engine oil leaking or is it CVT fluid? rear main seal should be engine oil right? i'm confused as to why the cvt fluid would be low from this.


What is that black cover for? and is the gasket holding fluid and supposed to be wet?

BlackB15 can you post pictures from after the repair and anyone else who gets a chance post pics of this same area. I'll post some of mine when i get under there again.

They told me it was tranny fluid leaking. From what I saw it was an incredibly small amount. I saw maybe one or two little drips in my garage, and there was only a minimal amount of leak/dirt on the underside of the engine/tranny itself.

I checked the oil immediately when I saw this leak (thinking it was oil as well) and found my oil level was perfectly fine. When I dropped it off at Nissan I asked the guy if there were going to have to drain the oil out or what, because I only run synthetic oil and that is what I want put back in there. He stated that they didn't have to drain the oil, just the transmission.

I am coming up on 10,000 miles and plan to rotate the tires and check all the brakes, lines, etc...while I am down there. I am going to check again to make sure this new rear main seal isn't leaking again, and will be doing an oil/filter change along with double checking the transmission fluid level. That is planned for this weekend, then the Rogue needs detailed desperately.

Ok thanks for the extra info. Keep us posted on the new seal.

As of right now, the new seal is doing it's job. I got under there to drain the engine oil out and took a good long look around at where the leak was. I don't see any leaks or signs of a leak whatsoever.

Thanks for the update. Good to hear it's looking alright now. I cleaned mine up last week there was some black residue and a small amount of possible oil that i cleaned up. Keeping an eye on it weekly to see if any oil or residue comes back.

It looks like I have something leaking under the vehicle. I have no idea what it is, except it looks like its right next to the cvt. There appears to be a metal plate pushed onto what looks like a gasket, and it seems to be leaking. The vehicle only has 10,000 miles on it. Pictures are below, sorry for the bad shots, I was laying underneath it without it jacked up. Any idea what it is? It's right next to the exhaust.

I looks like the rear main oil seal is leaking. It also could be your CVT torque converter oil seal. Looking at the color of the oil I would tend to believe its the rear main oil seal on the engine. If its under warranty, take in in to have it replaced. The transmission needs to be removed to replace the oil seal.

dave08902 wrote:I looks like the rear main oil seal is leaking. It also could be your CVT torque converter oil seal. Looking at the color of the oil I would tend to believe its the rear main oil seal on the engine. If its under warranty, take in in to have it replaced. The transmission needs to be removed to replace the oil seal.

+1

Good thing it is under warranty, what could cause it to leak with only 10,000 miles?

mvjunkie wrote:Good thing it is under warranty, what could cause it to leak with only 10,000 miles?

bad seal. happens to any car

I had my rear main seal fail at 8000 miles on my 2012 Rogue, and not a week later talked to a guy who said his 2012 Rogue had a rear main seal replaced at 7000 miles. Plus, I am fairly certain another member on here posted that their newer Rogue was leaking right there as well.

wtf-rear-main-seal-leak-at-8200-miles-2 ... 72202.html

I am starting to think this is bigger than "just happens to cars". If you read through my link I posted, I think there are two people in there who have the same leaks.

Get that sucker to the dealership pronto. I am curious how much fluid you have lost. Any transmission issues?

and i'll be joining you guys on this, at 80-sum thousand miles....

I have the same problem. Approximately 3 months after purchasing my 2012 Rogue, my local mechanic identified the leak. Managed to get the car to the closest dealer 3 hours away (despite having a 2 week old at home) and they supposedly fixed the seal. Fast forward 5k more miles and at my next oil change my mechanic again identified the leak. Back to the dealership the car went for another fix. They told us the seal was not installed correctly when they replaced it the first time. Both of these repairs were covered under warranty. Then, in February of this year, one month shy of the expiration of my 3 year extended warranty, my mechanic found the leak again. So, back to the dealer for a third time. This time they did a full rebuild. Last week, my mechanic found a leak for a fourth time. This time the leak is so bad it is actually dripping steadily. Of course, my extended warranty is now expired and I have to figure out how to get this stupid thing fixed for the FOURTH time in 3.5 years. Granted, I now have 96k miles on the Rouge as I have a 90 mile commute each way, but this is completely ridiculous. When I talked to the dealership they were not especially helpful and are saying they don't know if they will be able to cover any of the work since the extended warranty has expired. I still live 3 hours from the dealer and have no easy way of getting my car to them. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in these problems with the car but I am incredibly annoyed with all the hassle. We are trading the car off as soon as we can and are definitely staying away from Nissan next time.

Aren't there any laws that state that if an issue/repair took place under warranty and is recurant because it wasnt repaired correctly that the dealer HAS to correct the situation. Would this pass under the lemon law if its applicable to you.

I was thinking the same thing. At the least, each "repair' should have warranty for a year each time.

i wont be touching this problem. this requires disconnecting the engine & transmission. i'd rather use thicker oil to try and mask the problem. if you have leaks, always use thicker oil - it actually works!