Manual Tranny Oil Leaking...please give me some suggestions
 

Had a used tranny and ACT clutch installed 2 weeks ago to take care of my blown 5th synchro.

Tranny shifts great/smooth, clutch engages perfect.

However, after every long distance drive, I smell tranny oil....If I jack up the car I can see a few drips on a few of the bolts at the rear of the tranny....most of the oil droplets are on the rear tranny-tunnel brace where the catback and midpipe meet. Oil drips onto my exhaust and burns off as I drive...it does not leak with the car off.

Its a minor leak...I took it back to the shop and they sprayed it off and couldn't find where it was coming from.

What is a typical area that fluid leaks from on FD tranny's? Is there some kind of rear seal on the back of the tranny that leaks? This shop is very slow and out of my area...I also do not want to pay $$ to have some stupid little seal replaced. If you guys can help me figure out the culprit, this would be awesome.

Rear seal...

Hmm my car has done a similar thing for years now after I worked on the tranny. No leaks when it's cold/off, but when it warms up, you can smell a little under there and it leaks out enough to make the tranny cover (the thin sheet metal tray) goopy. I can't ever figure out where it comes from since it's all messy and does not leak when cold.

I just fill it back up about once every year or two :)

Think mine is the rear seal? I'm pretty sure I replaced it - but it's been a number of years... or maybe I did replace it but I damaged it reinstalling...

well how difficult is it to change the rear seal...I'm willing to try it if it doesn't require dropping the tranny or taking off the PPF

pretty sure the rear seal just requires you to remove the driveshaft.....

Yeah just remove the driveshaft and pry the seal out and then use a large socket (or similar) to whack a new one in there. Maybe I'll check mine heh.

Yes, just pry out the old one. Tap a new one in gently around the outside and put a small film around the inside of the new lip inside the seal. Pretty simple and straight-forward.

jacked it up pulled the exhaust off....theres no oil around the driveshaft or the heatshield back there.

Seems like most of the oil is located around where the tail housing of the tranny meets the main part of the tranny. Its almost like the seal between the two housings is leaking. Theres also a few drips from the tranny oil pan bolts as well.

So, is this going to require the entire tranny to be removed in order to re-gasket/seal theres parts.


Also, I decided to check the oil level just to be safe. I removed the large obtruding square bolt on the side, NOT the intruding square bolt up top. I read the bolt up top is NOT the filler plug, but just a random bolt. When I removed the obtruding bolt, oil started to pour out, so I immediately screwed it back in....doesn't this mean the tranny was overfilled? To my knowledge, you are only supposed to fill up to the hole? The tranny must have been filled up through the top bolt.

1) Yes, it's possible to have a leak at the sealant there. I would pull the trans to redo the seal since it's going to be very difficult to get it to seal well horizontally

2) You're on the correct plug, but is the transmission dead level? If the tail end is hanging low then that could explain the apparent overfill.

David

I had the rear jacked up. So, the tail end was higher...which means its certainly overfilled.

The only thing thats really confusing me is that the car does not leak any oil in neutral or parked....oil only leaks after a drive.

I had a similar slow leak on mine, and replacing the rear seal didn't fix it. Turned out the plastic cover with the small rubber boot over the base of the shifter was completely torn apart. On acceleration, oil was shifting back around the base of the shifter, and spilling over the side and running down to that spot under the trans case. It looked like it was leaking from the seal between the housings but it was actually coming from up top. It must not have actually leaked very much oil, because there was still a good bit in the shifter housing. Just a thought.

will i be able to tell if its the shifter by removing my interior panel and shift knob?

Yes. to the above question.

As for the overfilled level, you should drain it to the proper amount as close as you can tell. If it was filled full, you might actually have oil spurting out the breather.

Dave

well I guess I drain some of it out.....now that I remember, my last tranny was overfilled by a shop as well, because when I pulled the fill plug to check the level tons came pouring out. That tranny never leaked through a breather however. I'm still leaning towards it coming from the housings or the shifter assembly. This sucks! I don't want to take this car back AGAIN to that shop. They already damaged my bumper and had to repaint it, overfilled my tranny, and took 2 weeks longer than quoted to install my tranny.

On a side note, oil leaks always look worse than they really are. If i've been driving it for a month now, almost daily, and the tranny was still over-filled, its obviously a minor leak. So maybe I'll just say screw it and just pressure wash the underside every once in a while.

It can't hurt to run it at this oil level for a while and see what happens.

Dave