It is leaking oil. How can I tell if it is a main seal?

You don't give make or model. Here goes , The engine has a rear maim seal behind the fly wheel if it leaks the leak will be from the clutch housing. It has a front seal behind the crank shaft timing cover.it can leak from there . it can leak from the oil filter and oil pressure switch . Can also leak from the top timing cover gasket and cam shaft seals.

rear main seal usually only leaks when the car is running. though oil will slowy drip off afterwards. now the best way to tell is to remove the heat sheild that covers the flywheel and look at it and at the flywheel . is the oil only on the engine side of the cover or is it inside the cover and on the fly wheel. the rear main seal will leak into the bellhousing and on the fly wheel the oil pan gasket will leak on the front of the heat sheild.

Source:

former chrysler mechanic

1995 Tracker would have a timing BELT. Normal oil leak points (in order) on a Suzuki G16 engine are the distributor base (rear of motor), valve cover (top of motor), front main seal (behind lower timing belt cog) cam seal (behind the upper timing belt cog) and rear main seal. (behind the flywheel). I'd suspect the front main seal or cam seal. I use foot power to help find oil leaks.

You don't say what engine it has. The 4-cyl was a better than the V6 for oil leaks.

The V6 had oil leaks from

-rear bank cam cover gasket

-distributor o-ring seal

-oil filter bracket o-ring seal

-crankshaft nose oil seal (less common)

-rear main bearing oil seal (expensive, just leave it)

The 4 cyl leaked oil from

-distributor o-ring seal

-camshaft cover gasket

-rear main bearing seal (expensive, leave it)

oil leaks can come from many things.like front timing cover crankshaft seal, rear main oil seal,with engine running look under car around oil pan area check see if you see heavy oil leak which will come from loose or damage oil filter and seal or check oil pressure sending unit at bottom right rear engine block or right rear corner of the oil pump.if oil leak small leak the front crankshaft seal and rear main seal leaking .

Need to find out where leak is from. Kinda sounds like a crankshaft main seal, front or rear of engine. Front one is pretty easy to change, but rear main seal leak means you have to drop transmission to get to it. But it could be another seal or gasket. Can you tell about where leak is, from oil spills on ground where parked? Look at engine. Is oil seeming to leak from bottom end or upper engine. May need to wipe or clean it off to see where fresh oil leak develops. A mechanic may need to put it on a car lift to pinpoint the leak. Good luck.

There can be alot of causes, such as valve covers leaking, oil pan gasket leaking, oil filter leaking, rear main seal leaking, front timing chain cover seal or gasket leaking even bad rings. Does it smoke out of the back? Your valve seals could be leaking. Best way to find out if you have a leak is to inspect the valve covers manually, or take newspapers and lay them under the entire engine on the ground, and it will leave the tell tale stain of a leak. Hope this helps.

you have several points to check!
the dip stick tube has a "O" ring seal at the bottom where it fits to tranny.
a reverse switch on tranny & the shifters selector shaft has a seal that may be leaking !
there are the cooler pipes from cooler to tranny [in & out] plus pump seal to the torque converter [leaks out between engine & tranny bellhousing] & then there are the drive shaft or shafts seals
so wipe it all clean & park it in a diffrent clean spot!
some will only leak when its runnung due to tranny,s internal pressure!

First I'd find a different shop. $100 to look at it? I don't think so. Sounds like this may be a transmission issue.

ok ill try not to tell you rear main seal. but i can;t it sounds to me like they may have over filled it and as a result that will blow seals. i mean it is very easy to fix. and yet very expensive. also check the place where they put the oil into and check the oil pan gasket. use some break cleaner on it and clean it then add oil run it and check it