crankshaft rear oil seal

Just had the crankshaft rear oil seal replaced (oil leak became very noticeable during our 2000 miles in France in the summer) and took the advice of Genford in Huddersfield to have the torque converter seal replaced while the engine and transmissions were seperated.
Still another chunk of expenditure on the old 850 (£300!) and not expected on a 65,000 mile 7 year old car. I knew the seals have a reputation of going but had hope to see 100,000 up before then.
I'm just interested to know how common this failure is??

Here is another interesting fact:1 litre of Shell Helix in France ~ £2.90 at a motor factors, 1 litre of Shell Helix in a Shell Service station in UK - £6.00. Never mind the cross-channel booze run, who wants some oil? Do we pay extortionate rates of duty on lubrication oil in the UK..???

[sholtby]

Front and rear crank seals are prone to leaking on our cars as is the seal on the turbo oil return pipe and the sump can cause problems too. You certainly dont want to over fill your car with engine oil. I'm considering switching back to semi synthetic next oilchange as fully synthetic seems too thin. I also hear more problems of oil leaks than anykind of engine wear.
Your description of oil prices are just an example of how we get ripped off in the UK. I dont think there is duty on oil here just VAT so the oil companies must be to blame.

simon