Anyone ever leak oil out of the crank pulley on a 451?

[Hotshot 3]

After getting the Smart back on road with new Reluctor rings, oil, brakes, and a clean... I’m leaking oil out of the crank pully.  I have isolated it right behind the mail pully..

 

anyone have this?  2009 451.  Sat for 4 years. 

[BWM 87]

Not on a Smart but plenty of my cars, trucks, tractors, etc have had that oil leak.

There's a seal on the crankshaft behind the pulley and flywheel.

The front seal is more prone to leaking as it also has to protect from the elements too, where as the rear one is fairly well protected from outside dirt and only has to keep oil from leaking.

They can dry out, harden up and crack overtime or just wear out.

If you're lucky it's just gotten hard from sitting.

Problem is by sitting seals can stick to the crank if not used for extended time and tear on start up making them NFG.

Oil change with a seal lub additive like stop smoke may correct it by softening up the seal, but that's a hail Mary repair IMO.

Front seal is simple to change, the rear not so simple.

Good news is most seals are usually inexpensive.

[Hotshot 3]

Nice.  Thx.  Now to get the pulley off...

[Hotshot 3]

On 2019-09-04 at 4:13 PM, BWM said:

Not on a Smart but plenty of my cars, trucks, tractors, etc have had that oil leak.

There's a seal on the crankshaft behind the pulley and flywheel.

The front seal is more prone to leaking as it also has to protect from the elements too, where as the rear one is fairly well protected from outside dirt and only has to keep oil from leaking.

They can dry out, harden up and crack overtime or just wear out.

If you're lucky it's just gotten hard from sitting.

Problem is by sitting seals can stick to the crank if not used for extended time and tear on start up making them NFG.

Oil change with a seal lub additive like stop smoke may correct it by softening up the seal, but that's a hail Mary repair IMO.

Front seal is simple to change, the rear not so simple.

Good news is most seals are usually inexpensive.

 

 

Its gettong the belts eats and the pulley off I wonder if I can do it vs MB doing it in an hour or so.  $167hr isn’t cheap. 

[BWM 87]

Again having never taken the crank pulley off of a Smart the procedure should be the same as any other engine.

Remove belts, remove the center hold on bolt, use a harmonic balancer puller to pull the pully then you can get at the seal.

On a Smart removing the tire n rim then the splash shield will gain working room.

The seal will be a friction fit and can be difficult to remove.

Be sure to give the seal a light coat of oil before installing if you put it in dry it'll shorten it's service life.

Tapping it in using a socket or piece of pipe big enough around to push on the outside edges of the seal till it's completely bottomed and straight.

Then reassemble don't forget the key on the crank that you have to remove to change the seal.

The center bolt probably has a torque value by I don't know what that should be, most crank pulleys IIRC are in the 60 - 80 ft lbs range

It's not a hard job and from changing the belts on my smart should be about an hour - 2 long to accomplish.

Good luck.