Incontinent engine drip

my 1995 Volvo has 132M miles. my regular parking spot shows evidence of fluid leakage. latest service in june comme nted: oil leakage from valve cover gasket, oil filler cap, kv hose-from valve cover. signs of leakage also from rear main seal.transmission fluid is burnt-slight smell & starting to discolor. I drive short trips totalling 2500 yearly miles.repair estimate is close to $1,900.should I go for it?

If motor oil consumption isn’t a lot (2 qts or more), then forego the rear main seal. Get the Auto Trans serviced with a pan drop, fluid, and filter replacement. Not sure if parts replacement for oil filler cap and hose would help out. Consider valve cover replacement. Unless there is a great amount of oil consumption from the rear main seal, forego that repair.

Given your annual mileage, change oil yearly and do the auto trans every 3=4 yrs or so. Your short trips are causing some level of problems to your fluids, it appears.

most valve covers show signs of a leak . as do the cap and hose . check your pcv system to make sure your not building up crankcase pressure and blowing the oil out. how big a spot ? is it 1900 dollars big

Gee, I’d expect a fair amount of leakage after 132,000,000 miles.

Seriously though, you should try to figure which leaks are doing the bulk of the leaking. The oil cap, valve cover gasket and that hose are pretty simple fixes. The main seal, not so much-- it requires removal of the engine or transmission so I’ll bet that’s the bulk of the cost. Perhaps get the easy stuff done and then see if that makes it let up, though it would be better to maybe lay a piece of cardboard under your car and note where the oil is coming from-- the main seal will drip where the engine connects to the transmission. Also get the transmission fluid and filter changed (not flushed).

#1 Go ahead and get the tranny fluid and filter changed. You need a healthy tranny to keep moving forward.
#2 Get a drip pan, or at least a chunk of old cardboard, for your parking spot.
#3 At your leisure, clean the crankcase ventilation tubing and perhaps replace the valve cover gasket and fill cap gasket yourself. It will only cost a few dollars and take basic tools.

I would never replace a rear main seal unless I had the tranny out for other reasons. They don’t leak that much or fail that quickly. I foolishly failed to replace the rear main when I replaced the clutch in my '91 Volvo at 175k miles because it was still dry. It started dripping in my parking spot at around 200k miles. I put down a piece of cardboard and drove it another five years to 250k miles when the second clutch failed (kids learning to drive). I did the rear main seal when I put in the second clutch, and the car is drip-free again.

Our two previous cars both leaked a little oil out of the rear main bearing. The leaks were small so we put my wife’s oold cookie sheets with a layer of kitty litter under each oil pan. We attached golf balls to strings and hung them from the ceiling to hit the windshield at a predetermined spot marked by a small red sticker. The same way pilots park their planes ar the gate.

This way we always had the oil pans exactly over the cookie sheets. We emptied the cookie sheets once every 6 months or so. Total cost was about $4 for a bag of kitty klitter. Cookie sheets and golf balls were cast-offs!