So I just bought a low mileage, (78.5k) 2000 VDP about a week ago. A couple of minor interior issues, but everything else was clean and tight. Service records since new to boot. Anyway, the car has been sitting in the driveway for about 3 days, no puddles or drips. I go out today and work on the interior pieces, and happen to glance under the car and I see a steady drip. I get the car jacked up and there is a puddle of light orange transmission fluid. I start wiping everything off and try to figure out where it is coming from. Looks like the drain plug, so I grab a wrench, and it doesn't budge. Then for no reason it just stops dripping. It has been a couple of hours, and no more fluid. The car hasn't been started since Wednesday, so it isn't like it was blowing fluid out due to pressure, (unless it waited 3 days). I am sure that I am missing something, so I thought I would ask the folks more knowledgeable than me.

As a side note, no transmission faults or hard shifting as of last Wednesday, and not enough fluid leaked today for it to be empty.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions....

 

Ok, a follow up hoping additional info will help. Crawled under the car today, the transmission has been weeping a bit since Saturday. I jack it up, but for the life of me I can't figure out from where. It is definitely from the driver side, but the electrical plug is dry. I put a dry rag above the drain plug to see if it gets fluid on it. I figure if that is dry in a day or so, it has to be the drain plug. If it is wet, than what would the culprits be above the electrical connector? Taking this thing out looks like more than big job, so before I tackle that I want to make sure it isn't wasted effort.

Thanks.

 

It could be the pan gasket, it's a thin paper gasket. Replacing it is not a big job, but requires getting the car off the ground and level to check the fluid level when refilling. A good time to replace the filter and upgrade the main pressure valve.

You may not want to take this on, but you have bought what most of us consider a hobbyist car, meaning do maintenance and repairs or spend a lot of money to have others do it.

While on the subject of repairs, do your records indicate that the secondary chain tensioners have been replaced?

 

Thanks for the info. First I'll answer your second question, so I can save the chuckles for the original problem for last. It doesn't show it specifically, but I have a 98 that didn't show it either, but they were done. In any case, I'm going to pull the cover and check that this coming weekend.

Now for the leak, and this is for those guys out there that wonder if anybody else does bonehead moves? So after my update post, I decide to take off the shrouds under the hood and get a look at the top of the bellhousing. I see fluid, but wait a minute it is coming from the top of the engine, in the galley between the heads and intake. So I say to myself, dumba**, Dexcool, not tranny fluid! There is a pretty constant drip from the bottom of the thermostat housing with the engine running.

When I was getting in and out of the car working on the interior, all of the collected coolant that weeped out when the car was shutdown, dripped down along the tranny and across the drain plug. Jack it up same thing. It quit when the angle wasn't steep enough to drip.

So I'm a DA! Here's to making somebody feel better about themselves.

 

We are only human and occasionally we are all Dumb Asses !

 

Ain't it the truth. Trying to keep DA as a hobby and not a career for many a moon......

 

Brain fart. Gettum all the time!!