The seal tends to wear a light groove in to the balancer. A new balancer is going to be missing that and the seal needs a chance to wear to the balancer. They will leak for a bit sometimes until it cleans up the seal/balancer.

Hope that solves the problem for you.

You're right about the groove that the seal made on the old balancer shaft. The mechanic showed me that on the old balancer when he compared both balancers after the new one was installed and the seal was then leaking. They replaced the seal before I left the shop that day, and so far I don't see any sign of oil leaks from the seal. Although the old seal didn't appear to be damaged, I wonder if maybe they pushed-in the outer lip of the seal when they installed the new balancer the first time. That seems possible to me, and would explain why the seal was leaking but didn't appear to be damaged.

...anyway, my wife drove the car yesterday and although the engine didn't jerk or stall, she said she heard a noise while making a turn. I looked over the area behind the right front wheel last night and noticed that they didn't put the access cover in the proper position; the bottom of the cover was positioned outside of the steel part of the frame that it appears it should be tucked behind, so I lifted the bottom and pushed it into place. DOH! I hope I won't find any more unpleasant surprises...

I doubt you will...

and on that seal.. it'* just the way it is..

Well, if anyone'* interested in what happened since I posted this problem, my wife drives the car almost every day, and there hasn't been a problem since the crank sensor was replaced a few weeks ago.

thanks for the update alot of people just disappear and you never know