I need some advice, yesterday I replaced the oilpan/filter + seal sleeve + plug adapter + 4 sealing tubes.
I then pumped 4 quarts of mercron sp into the transmission, started the car and pumped 4 more quarts into the transmission and installed the plug. Put the car in gear and ran through all of the gears several times and checked the fluid level. I was out of fluid and since it was not dripping out of the fill hole I installed the plug and shut the car off.
Ordered more mercron sp with plans on adding it monday. I crawled under the car several hours later and noticed several drips of fluid coming from the inspection hole.
This morning I have a puddle of fluid that has leaked out of the inspection cover hole.
The question is could this be occurring because of incorrect seal installation? I’m hoping it doesn’t indicate that the torque converter seal is bad.

Please advise!



jn

 

Are you certain that you properly seated the new sleeve? Sometimes they tend not to slide all the way in, and that will cause a small leak that shows up underneath the ZF pan....

 

Check the seal collar to housing clearance. If the seal is correctly installed, there should be around 3mm gap with the housing.

 

Happy New Year everyone, I hope life returns to a more normal mode going forward.



After my last post I drained the transmission (still on jack stand) and then life managed to slow my transmission project.

I had ordered a Foxwell nt530 so that I would be able to clear the adaptations once I put the xk8 back on the road…it was due to be delivered Dec 14th via usps 2nd day delivery…it arrived Dec 24th!

Yesterday I removed the car cover and pulled the valve body out, inspected the connection sleeve (which was not leaking externally, had @ 3.5mm gap from the housing) and the connection piece collar. Nothing stood out as problematic; the rectangular connection piece wasn’t cracked or cut etc. The only thing I did notice is that the hard portion of its body is slightly taller than the original one and the inner cavity walls are of a different configuration. Could this cause my problem?

The part came in a Bapmic kit #BACB12-846003

Although listed primarily as a bmw zf6hp26 part it also is cross referenced everywhere I have seen as a proper kit for the x100 zf6hp26 transmission.

I did not pull out the four rubber tubes as I’m certain there was no issue with their installation.

Once again, after I had filled the transmission, ran it through the gears (while on the jack stands) I topped off the oil level and simply shut down the engine, returning later on to see a puddle of tranny fluid under the car…all of which was coming from INSIDE the bell housing.

I don’t know if either of these seals leaking would allow the fluid to enter the bell housing. My hope is that the fluid got aerated and was vented into the bell housing, this is my best outcome…otherwise I fear it was leaking around the front output shaft…which it was not doing prior to my fluid/filter change.

Please digest my dilemma and offer more advice.

I do have another new BAP kit and will use its components.

Thank you everyone for your time



Jn

 

Read your first post and noted your added 4 qts. then 4 more qts. Total of 8 Qts. No mention of trans. temp range. The hot fluid will expand. Possibly you overfilled the unit and the leak is from the overflow. Generally the pan, filter exchange takes about 6 1/2 qts. Maybe the removal of valve boy required more? Did you allow the temp to rise to the recommended range prior to installing the plug? The solution could be to drain the pan, and reinstall the fluid in the recommended procedure as noted in this forum many times.. Perhaps this could help with the leak.

 

You are not mentioning monitoring the temperature in your refill procedure. My understanding is that colder fluid is thicker fluid that does not return as easily to the pan. If you closed that fill hole when the fluid was below the specified temp (50deg C?), you likely overfilled. Overfilling leads to that bellhousing leak, but not sure if this is a good thing (overfilled fluid just escapes as per the design) or a bad thing (overfilling blows a seal).

I also believe the proper fill procedure calls for a level _car_, not necessarily a level _transmission_ if there is a difference. Folks measure the car level along the door sill, along the pinch weld I suppose.

I have done this procedure a couple of times. From memory, getting to the proper temp takes a bit of time (say, several min), from the perspective of being under the car pumping fluid from all these individual bottles, as the car idles (and that exhaust pipe heats up!). It is not like you have to power rush the procedure as you see the temp rush past 50 Deg in 30 sec. On the other hand, if you took some time "rowing" through the gears, that time might have elapsed and you might not have overfilled after all.

Your scan tool should give you the "real" trans fluid temp. I was using a "laser" thermometer pointed to the pan.

FWIW, CTSC has some nice PDFs describing the procedure if you need it.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Good morning world.

After I had removed the valve body there was quite a bit of additional fluid draining from the transmission body. I did not measure it but over a quart maybe two.

The car was leveled based on a bubble balance glass set on the door sill.

I had measured the temp with an infrared measure targeting the center of the oil pan…at 34 degrees I started adding until there was a dribble…I capped it @ 37 degrees

I used a thoroughly cleaned polypropylene bucket to house the mercron SP. Initially I poured 4 quarts in and using an electric pump I pumped those 4 quarts in, capped the trans and started the car…uncapped it and added four more quarts, capped it and ‘rowed’ it through the gears, uncapped it and added 1-1/2 +/- quarts until dribbling at 37 degrees. Capped it, shut it off and went to lunch…came back to find the puddle.

I think that covers the details.

I had read that when the torque converter is drained the total oil capacity was @ 9-1/2 quarts.

I’ll dive into this in more detail this week.

wj

 

I was getting ready to install the seals once more and saw that the seal had a hp19/21 part number on it.
Further research shows that most aftermarket companies include this 'incorrect' seal in their hp26 kits.
Where can I purchase an oem seal online? Any help would be appreciated. (a url would be awesome)

wj

 

One of the best ZF parts sources in the U.S. is Klaus Malenke's company in California. His website is Genuine ZF Parts.

 

thank you very much!
wj

 

Hi Wymjym,
I have a similar issue with leaking coming from the exact same area - ZF6HP26 on my 2005 X350. I also changed the fluid and the all the seals (tube seals, bridge seal, pan etc.- using the proper fill procedure after a valve body rebuild.

You were suspecting the bridge seal because of the difference in size and possibly the wrong part. Did you confirm that the bridge seal was the issue, and if not, how did you solve the leak? I realize this is an old post and I am relatively new to this Forum, so if I am not using the proper protocols I apologize!

Lundi

 

my leak was caused by a worn front shaft seal...rebuilt transmission is my cure as I fubarred the original by trying to add a seal 'sweller'. The sweller worked exactly as people warned me...it did swell the seals but it also softened them so much that they turned to jelly after several weeks and one morning all of my transmission fluid was saturating my garage floor.
good luck
wj

 

Thanks for the info and sorry to hear it went that way for you!
It looks like I may have to drop the tranny to repair the front seal (it was pointed out to me as being the most likely cause). And if I have to go that route I may as well do a rebuild as well.
Again, thanks for the info.