So I'm driving yesterday and my heel starts slipping around. After finding a place to stop, I run my fingers through a puddle of oily stuff on my floor mat. "Hmmm....", I think, "that's odd".

Today, I went in search of what I assumed to be a coolant leak. I keep tracing the leak higher and higher and it keeps seeming just like gear oil. Eventually, I pull the instrument console out and find that gear oil is coming up through the speedometer cable and then pouring out through the dash.

Anybody ever seen this before? What part fails that allows this to happen?

 

That is an unusual problem that I have never heard of. There is probably an O-ring or oil seal under the speedo gear drive shaft in the transmission that needs to be replaced.

 

WOW. Wierd. Yea, all I can imagine is a seal on the transmission end.

Your certain its not fluid from the master cylinder right?

 

break fluid from master cyc.. or clutch cyc

 

Yeah, I thought it might be either the clutch or brake master cylinders but their fluid levels were fine, there was no evidence of leakage through the firewall and the oil was pooling in the instrument panel holder and dripping off the speedo cable.

Once I was able to pull the instrument panel out and get a good (there was lots) sample of the fluid, it was clear that it was gear oil. My transmission rebuild adventure made me pretty familiar with the weight and smell of gear oil. I just had a hard time believing that it could have made it's way up that far.

Yeah, weird.

Guess I'll be jacking her up tomorrow.

 

Is it automatic?

 

I had the same problem on my 89 geo metro (manual). It kept ruining my shoes so I traded it in.

 

I seen that on overfilled Toyota trannies on RWD cars.

Sure the car was flat when you last changed the tranny fluid and you didn't pump too much up there??

 

my auto use to do that, could never figure it out myself, so i put a 5-speed in it


-Shawn

 

It's not an automatic.

And, the gear oil was last changed about 6 months ago so it's not an overfil problem as this just started happening two days ago.

I'm going out to jack it up and remove the speedometer driven gear to see about seal issues.

I'll let you all know.

 

usually takes about 3-4 months to leak through if it was overfilled.

If you remove the add fluid plug, does anything come out... nothing should. If gear oil does, then the tranny was overfilled.

 

Wow Iam having the same problem riaght now with my 88 non turbo manuel trans gear oil out the upper end of the tranny cable tranny not over full any body know why?????

 

The seal on the transmission side of the speedometer cable has failed. I know some places sell it, but I can't remember where seeing it. Mine failed a long time ago, but never got so bad as to where it was coming into the car!

 

Yeah I had this problem. there is a seal at the end of the speedo cable. Once you pull it off the trans has a small insert where the cable fits, at the very back there is a seal that you need to remove (it probably is just old) you'll need to becareful removing it because if you damage that housing its in you'll have to replace the whole piece. If you decide to replace the 0-ring there too you should drain the trans and pull that piece out, if you don't you'll be swimming in fluid.

I know this is a little long but some people don't have the time or the means to get all the info. good luck

 

whoa buddy...this is 5 years old. did you read any of the thread before posting? i didn't think so.

 

Thanks guys I ll try the o ring and see how it goes yea i know its an old thread but look at the results thanks again

 

I think you'll be disappointed.
There are actually two seals in the drive gear assembly.

The o-ring seals the unit to the transmission housing...when the o-ring fails it leaks under the car.
There is another seal inside the housing that seals the cable...when this fails oil is forced up the cable housing and ultimately exits behind the speedo.
It's the second seal you need to be looking at.