Rear main seal replacement : To remove the retainer or not?

['99rolla]

So the rolla has about 115 000 Km's on her now, and with corolla season coming up quick it is time for me to do her first clutch swap.

I have a haynes manual and know my way around cars prety well (rotorhead) so I am comfortable taking the plunge and doing it myself.

I was planning to do the rear main seal as well,
but the haynes manual made it complicated.. (not complicated, I just hate choices in a repair manual)


Anyways, for those of you that have done this..

What is the safest way to go about the job? should I even bother on a 10 year old car with 115 000 kms on it?

I ordered the clutchmasters stage 1 kit and plan to not skimp on the project, ie: resurface flywheel, new axle retaining clips, change fluid in transmission, and get in whatever maintenence I possibly can.

I just am unsure of how thorough I should be (Im used to rx-7s. Whenever you do any repair you just replace everything you touch, haha)

Anyways,
Im sure I will probably go overkill on this expedition but a bit of experienced input would ease my mind.
Thanks!!

[fishexpo101]

115k KM is not a tremendous amount of distance, especially on a 10 year or car. Unless the rear main seal is leaking - I wouldn't even bother with it. Not something that is known to be an issue with the 1ZZ-FE engine in this generation of Corolla.

As for other stuff to do - everything you've posted plus some visual inspections for obvious damage. New hardware - bolts for flywheel and pressure place would be advisable. Lubing the shifter cables/pivot points wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Since you are planning to drain and refill the transaxle fluid - I'd go ahead and flush the master clutch reservoir as well and bleed the system. Double check the clutch pedal free play and clutch interlock switch on the pedal arm, especially if you've noticed it seems to require burying the pedal to get the car to start.