Leaky Miata

It's supposed to be a modern version of British car without the leaks and Lucas electronics .. My '96 has a small leak, a very small leak that I can see on the garage floor after a few days sitting in the garage. After putting it on the lift it looks like it's a leaky seal between the transmission and the bell housing. It seems to be the transmission fluid that's leaking out. Is this common? Will I need to have the tranmission dropped in order to fix this? If so I'll postpone it and in the mean time just make sure that I have enough transmission fluid by opening the fill plug and checking the transmission fluid level. Thanks to the Miata guru here

just a shot in the dark, but is it from the CAS and dripping all the way down slowly? top of the engine right next to the firewall, driver side.

Slave cylinder?

Where is the oil pressure switch located? A lot of engines put it somewhere near the bell and it will look like a rear main seal failure. You can buy UV dye for dumping into engines and transmissions to isolate a leak.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Where is the oil pressure switch located? A lot of engines put it somewhere near the bell and it will look like a rear main seal failure. You can buy UV dye for dumping into engines and transmissions to isolate a leak.

The oil pressure switch on the Miata is on the side, under the intake manifold.

Oil dripping down the back of the engine on an NA usually means the cam angle sensor O-ring, like Brokeback said. Definitely check that before you pull the tranny to check the rear main seal and transmission input seal.

Agreed, that's the number 1 culprit. And it does a good imitation of rear main seal.

Basically, clean everything up and follow the trail upwards.

Thanks for the input. I thought I changed the CAS when I changed the valve cover gasket but I'll double check. So far no change in oil level. As far as the slave cylinder, I checked and it was dry.

Brokeback wrote: just a shot in the dark, but is it from the CAS and dripping all the way down slowly? top of the engine right next to the firewall, driver side.

I checked and that area (top of the engine right next to the firewall on the driver side) was dry so it doesn't look like it's worn out CAS.

So, how many hours usually does it take to change the rear main seal? I do small repair and maintenance works but changing the rear main seal sounds like something that's too big for me to DIY. I just want to be able to estimate how much this will cost in labor since around here (Washington DC Metro are) auto repair shops charge upward of $90-$100/hour. Thanks all.