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For that rear main seal leak there is a trick to check that. I see you have an auto, all you do is pull of the tourqe converter inspection cover(2 small bolts hold it in, it's located at the rear of the oil pain)if the tourqe conveter is wet with oil then you can pretty much expect rear main if not and that area is dry it's just a oil pan gasket.

Are you talking about the rubber cover that is inside that little u shaped hole between the oil pan and the tranny housing? It's just flapping around loose leaving the flywheel exposed to the elements. I need to find something better to cover that hole with. Has this cover been revised in later years and is now made of metal?

The oil appears to be seeping from that area. I Simple Greened the hell out of the engine underside and it started up again from here. I'll take a closer look at the inside and see if the TC or flywheel are covered in oil.

wanna come over to my place and replace my rear sway bar bushings? And fix any other thing you can find wrong with the car. Damn you rock.

yep that's it. There also should be a metal plate that unbolts exposing more of the converter and flywheel. you want to look at the body of the converter(use a flashlight).

rear main leaks come from the back side of the motor and drip down the converter/flywheel then drip down the rear of the pan. If you can take of that plate it's easy to find and get a good look in there if it's oil soaked(the converter will sling oil inside the housing)then it's a rear main. If it's dry then pan gasket. hope this helps.

also if it's a rear main and you loosing alot of oil you can use an additive like stp to thiken the oil, the thicker oil will not thin has much. this may work until you can fix it. If it gets bad get it done soon or you will wearout the rear main bearing and then cause damage to the crankshaft.

I finally got around to inspecting the TC, and I'm relieved to find that there is no oil at all on it

I've never done an oil pan before, so this looks like it might be a fun first time, considering that I need to take off that Y pipe.

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The dreaded MIL did come back on a few days ago, and the car started driving real bad. Between my first post and now it was perfect. I popped the hood and discovered a plug wire had worked itself loose (phew). The wires looked real old so I changed them out for a new set. What a difference (and what a pain)! I used to hear that loud ticking whenever I was accelerating hard. I figure that I was probably hearing an arc from a bad wire(s).

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Up next - The temp gauge is going into the red whenever the ac is turned on and the car is in traffic. Otherwise it sits at the A these days. I see lots of posts about the temp senders being flaky and bad water pumps. With this cars (lack of) service history I think I'll check the pump just to see if it's one of the original ones.

I also need to fix a leak in the trunk. It looks like there's a torn rubber strip right above the rear center tail light assembly that seals water out from the trunk. I've seen some posts about using weatherstripping as a replacement. I'll read up tonight and keep my fingers crossed.

The driver's power window switch is flaky, and the speaker system keeps cutting out every now and then on the right side.

Thanks again, if it werene't for this site, I think I would have dumped the car by now out of frustration, but I'm actually enjoying it as the thing is actually getting better (and more fun to drive) each time. I must say that this is a really cheap car to maintain/repair when compared to my Honda.