i seriously need help on this one. i had my cat's alignment checked today and out of curiosity i went underneath the car and to my surprise i noticed an oil dripping from around the auto trans. i currently don't have any lights on the dash and this was certainly not there a month ago or so when i flushed my transfer case. Am very worried and don't even know where to start looking or what to do....

 

If you overfilled the transfer case, or it was low and developed a seal leak then you brought the level back to normal; the transfer case fluid could be leaking out and being slung onto the underside of the car by the spinning driveshaft.

 

in addition, there is an overflow tube/port on the TC. if you like most anyone else read that the TC requires 660ml of fluid, drained the case and added 660ml you over filled it. I think and there are experts here who can chime in but I think the proper amound should be 500ml since there is no way to drain it completely you now have 160ml of surplus fluid, and it will puke out.

So, maybe drain 100ml out on the weekend and see if it stops or clean the underside of the car completely and see if you can tell where it's coming from to get a better diagnosis

 

am going to get the underside of the car washed so i can tell exactly the fluid is coming from but it was more(like a drop) on the engine oil drain plug. is it possible that after more than a month of filling the tc, i can still have its excess tc oil dripping down? anyway the alignment helped stop the small vibration which usually occurs when my speed reaches 62MPH

 

Ok, first you said the fluid was dripping "from around the auto trans", now it's "like a drop on the engine oil drain plug".

Could be your engine oil pan gasket is seeping?

 

baffourg, lets help narrow down where the fluid is coming from. Is the fluid a brownish color, greyish color, or red? Brownish is oil, greyish is normally gear lube from the TC, and red is tranny fluid. Based on what you are describing (all fluid from the area of the oil drain plug), that is most likely either oil or gear lube. If the offending fluid is all the way up along the front edge of the motor, then that is oil and is either the leftover from an oil change/leak near the oil filter or a leaking oil pan. If the fluid is more of a grey color and is only found back near the oil drain plug, then that is the TC spitting fluid out due to overfilling. The time it takes for this to come out is all dependent on how fast you drive. The TC churns up the fluid, putting air into it, but the faster you drive, the more air that gets put into the fluid and therefore will cause the fluid to foam up and be pushed out the vent due to the expansion. So, if you did a lot of intown driving (say for a month), you could see no leakage, yet, when you get out on the highway, you could then see the excess coming out of the vent.

let us know what color the fluid is and then we can help you narrow down where the fluid is coming from.

 

i justy checked and noticed that there is a crack in the middle of the oil pan causing it to drip slowly. the oil level from the deep stick has also gone down abit and in the interim i have covered it with an adhesive. i think in the long term i need to change the oil pan or repair the old one. what do u think?

 

baffourg, if you can see the crack, then that makes it pretty much confirmed in my book. Especially if you can seal the pan with the adhesive and the leakage stops. Unfortunately, changing out the pan on this car is not going to be a simple job. There is a bolt that is tucked back into a corner that in order to get it out either involves:

1) pulling the transfer case and most of the front suspension
2) drilling a hole in one of the transfer case supports to allow removal of the bolt that way, or
3) use of an oxy-acetylene torch to cut the old bolt out and then installing a shorter bolt

I wish the news was better, but it is just a heads up as to what you can expect.

 

i think i will stick to the adhesive esp when the leakage has stopped. thanks yall

 

So I decided to take the bull by the horn because the oil when hot still breaks through the adhesive. I took it in and my mechanic managed to take out the sump. He tells me it wasn't an easy job. It turned out that the crack was longer than I thought. Anyway so my mech got it welded with alumimium and this afternoon the cat was delivered to me after 3days with him. I also asked him to change the ATF cos when he removed the front shaft, no oil came out. He drained and filled with about 8litres. Hope this is enough. He also told me that he had to remove the prop shaft during the process, so am asking if I need to refill my tc. The car drives well with no light on the dash but the auto response is a bit slow. I hope it will get better.

 

baffourg, pulling the shaft out of the transfer case will not cause you to loose any fluid as the level is not that high. Granted, you may want to keep an eye on that side of the transfer case as there is an internal seal in the transfer case that you need a special tool to remove the half shaft else you will damage the seal which will lead to leaks in the future. So, keep an eye out.

As for the 8 liters of ATF, that sounds about right for a fluid change out.