bird2003

Hi, Ok, I have a question. I am confused. I have transmission fluid leaking from the "drives side" underneath the car. It is about 1 foot or so from the wheel. It is trans fluid (I checked it is red in color). I first thought it was oil but I was wrong.
It ONLY leaks when the engine is cool. And only just a drop. That is all. My question is, I am planning on going to the beach (about a 300 mile round trip) do you think this will wait until I can get back? It is just a little bit leaking. I hear no noise in the front wheel. I looked under the car and I can see nothing that is leaking, only find spots.
I had this problem before and it was a axle seal I think, cost 25 bucks to get repaired but my mechanic is backed up until the week I get back from the beach. I have put stop leak in the transmission to help stop the leak. Do you think it will make it? It has been leaking very little like this for about a month (I put about 500 miles a week on it).
Thanks
bird
p.s I am no mechanic, so please let me know weather you think it will be ok..

p_medica

If your leaking transmission fluid from underneath the car on the drivers side it could be two failures. The first would be a seal leaking on the transaxle which is easy to fix but is usually not the problem area. Ususally the problem area is the transaxle bearing are worn to a point where it is allowing the constant velocity joint on the driver side shaft to float. A floating CV joint will not stay centered in the axle housing and will allow fluid to leak past the seal.

Sorry for the bad news. By the way, this root cause of this failure is usually a CV joint that went bad because the grease boot broke and allowed contamination into the Joints bearing area. This will cause the joint to wobble and place undue dynamic forces on the transaxle bearing, slowly wearing them out. Leason learned: change your CV joints every 70K whether they need it or not.
P_medica

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bird2003

Thanks for the reply. I had one seal replaced. The first cv joint went at 70,000 miles, second at 130, third at 220,000 and know this problem.
Is the latter of the problems expensive to repair? I know the seal costed me about 35.00 total.
thnks

p_medica

The tranaxle is expensive, about 550 USD however you could buy a used low mile replace trany which contains the the tranaxle for ~ 600 USD and have it installed by a repair shop for ~ 900 USD total. Find a unit that has less then 50K miles on it and replace the drive shafts when you have the work done. Most non certified trany repair centers will just replace the seal and not check the play in the transaxle. New seals on a worn transaxle will only last for ~ 12K before they wear and start leaking.

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