Soaking wet under drivers side.. Tranny?

[dave93cab]

Calling all gurus, I am a bit out of my depth here. Noticed some dripping under the car when it was on my driveway, starting at the front and small patches going back along the drivers side.

I had a little look under there and saw that a lot of the underside was wet. I drove my other car to work today and had a look when I got back.

I first thought it was a leak under the vacuum booster because that was the highest point I could feel any dampness by sticking my hand in from above.

I jacked up the car to get a look underneath and there is fluid EVERYWHERE under the drivers side. Couldn't really get many good pics. My brake fluid reservoir is still pretty much full, I would think if it was coming from there it would have emptied out a fair amount. Checked the oil level and that looks good too.

Looking at it from the bottom it doesn't look like it is coming from the vacuum booster or from behind the vacuum booster, I think it is probably just splashed:



Here are some pics of under my car. I can see some green plastic coming out of one side of the transmission, and it doesn't look "even" with the other side.

Passenger side green plastic. Everything is pretty dry from here on towards the passenger side:


Drivers side. CV Joint is not supposed to look like that? It doesn't look like the other side and to my untrained eye looks like it should be more "straight" towards the transmission than that?


Wet quite a way back:


Any ideas? Supposed to be dropping my car off to get my TT exhaust installed tomorrow morning..

Thanks!

[sprocket007]

is your interior wet under your seats?

[briano1234]

Soaking wet, and oil leaks are 2 different critters.

Above that area of the car are the Drivers Side Rain drain which could account for water leakage as if your rain drain was plugged. (in the "Rain Tray" Drivers side near the strut tower, under the Digifant Computer on a 90ish).

Is this Oil, or water. Then what type of oil, engine oil, or Gear oil, as theysmell different and have a different viscosity.

Engine oil leaks are from the valve cover gasket, the Cam Plug, or the oil pressure switch drivers side of the head. They can also be from the oil pan gasket, and or the rear main seal.

Gear oil (transmission) can come from the differential seals, or the clutch push rod seal as well as the speedometer cable gasket.

Power steering Rack oil (red or clear) usually. Thinnest of your oils.

Knowing which type of oil and then looking for it with a flash light will help you more narrow it down.

That looks to be a thin oil or engine type, but I can't be certain.

Hints.
Engine oil thin black/brown color, and smells like engine oil.
Tranny Gear oil is thicker heavier, and had a distinctive smell that you can't confuse with engine oil.

Power steering Rack is usually red or clear smells like ATF fluid that you have in your car.

You have a leak somewhere, but knowing what type of fluid it is will help us help you in narrowing it down.

[dave93cab]

It has been raining for the last 2 days. No patches on the floor for the week up until then that I have been driving it. The first morning I saw patches was after some heavy rain I kind of assumed it was something to do with the rain and was just gonna keep an eye on it. Second day (yesterday) there wasn't as much rain but more obvious patches so I didn't drive it.

I couldn't for the life of me work out what kind of fluid it was last night, or where the source was. I had a sniff of most of the fluids in their reservoirs. The fluid on the floor in my garage had no smell really and the consistency of water more than the consistency of oil I would say.

I dropped it off at a local euro shop to get my TT exhaust on and asked them to have a look. Hopefully they will find whatever it is. If not I will have to keep an eye on it and investigate further. Didn't help that I noticed this morning that my water temp gauge has stopped working. If it's not one thing it's another with this car, but I guess that's what I signed up for!

is your interior wet under your seats?

I didn't check this but I don't think so, I think my interior is dry as a bone. I'll see if there is any dampness when I get it back

Gear oil (transmission) can come from the differential seals, or the clutch push rod seal as well as the speedometer cable gasket..

My speedo/odometer stopped working at the same time.. I would have been looking at that last night if it wasn't for this leak stopping me driving it!

Thanks a lot for some good leads on the rain tray and speedo cable!

[Aaron16V1.8l]

I didn't see that you checked the power steering fluid reservoir? I am placing a bet it is a leak in one of the hoses near the rack, or the rack itself. If the fluid in the system was old, it won't look red like the new fluid does. The underbody of my car looked the same when my power steering rack died. Hope for your sake its something more simple.

Good luck

[Spokane Pepe]

Master cylinder, are you sure?

[dave93cab]

Left the car at the shop overnight, they said it is leaking transmission fluid from the drivers-side axle hub, they will replace the seal tomorrow. Hope they got it!

[briano1234]

Left the car at the shop overnight, they said it is leaking transmission fluid from the drivers-side axle hub, they will replace the seal tomorrow. Hope they got it!

Make sure they top the tranny off with 90wt. As the 5th gear is splash lubricated, and can burn up if not sufficient oil is in the tranny.

[dave93cab]

$180 down the pan. Bastards. Still dripping like a ****ed fridge. Am thinking my speedo stopping and this leak appearing can't be a coincidence. I'm out for the weekend. Looking forward to a nice puddle of oil when I get back. Am pretty sure it's tranny oil..



Found this pic of the tranny end of the speedo cable. Can't seem to locate it looking from the top. Do I need to get underneath to see it? Bentley has an image of the assembly but not the location on the tranny..



Got it here (yellow circle). Might need to remove some stuff to get to it..

Thanks!

[dave93cab]

Pulled the airbox out. Speedo cable loose as hell, not attached at all.

Thats pissed me off. I am a total noob really, but, with the advice given earlier in the thread I would have (and still have to lol) fixed it myself. If I wasn't taking it to the shop to get the exhaust done anyway that's what I would have ended up doing. Thanks for the advice above, it was spot on.



Just need one of these right?

http://www.germanautoparts.com/productdisplay/2355

$3.15

What's the deal with mechanics and unnecessary work? Should I go back to the shop with pictures and expect some money back? I mean I can't say that there definitely wasn't a leak at the differential seal, but I can definitely say that that wasn't causing my car to piss out tranny fluid!

Cable looks alright, if it ain't broke don't fix it?



Thanks

[kamzcab86]

Just need one of these right?

http://www.germanautoparts.com/productdisplay/2355

$3.15
...
Cable looks alright, if it ain't broke don't fix it?

If it were me, I'd replace the cable too; so long as you're paying shipping, make it worthwhile. The gear looks good though.

[dave93cab]

Not much danger of damaging the circlip if I change the cable but keep the old gear?

edit:
Had a look at the cable. Looks pretty new. I'll just replace the gasket. Shame shipping consts $10 on a $3 part but still pennies on the $180 I threw away earlier..

Cheers Kam

[kamzcab86]

Unless you've already ordered it, call GAP in the morning; I'm sure they'd be willing to mail it instead of UPS to save some $$.

[87Cabriolet]

My car is missing that gasket as well. After I FINALLY was able to pull my cable out that was stuck in there, I saw they sealed it with some silicone crap. Anyways, I was kinda like when I saw a $3 piece of rubber costs $10 to ship. I didn't think about calling GAP to see if they could ship it cheaper...

At any rate, glad you got it fixed, and not so glad you were charged for something you may not have needed. Even if that seal was leaking, you think they could have done a better job sourcing the leak. Oh and top off that gear oil!!!

[native-texan_in_tn]

Frustrating as it may be, I wouldn't expect the shop to refund anything since they did what was apparently a valid repair. I am a wee bit surprised they didn't catch the leak at the speedometer cable, though. It will make a mess without that gasket (probably why the one that was in my '89 ultimately lost 5th gear thanks to low gear oil several years ago). I can vouch for GAP's service, as well, and wouldn't hesitate to call them in the future in regard to mailing small items like that gasket.

As for a couple of the questions you mentioned with your photos above, the green sleeve is normal, as is the angle of the driver's side axle (tis shorter on that side, thus the greater angle at the CV joints...).

Hope that does the trick for you!

[dave93cab]

Thanks for the reply

Got the gasket today. I'm having real trouble installing it though, I can't get the gear in far enough that the gasket sits flush on the tranny

Is there a trick to this? Also, I can slide the gear up and down the cable maybe half an inch or so. Is that normal? Hoping I don't need to get a new cable and gear..

[87Cabriolet]

The cable/gear will slide up and down like that a bit.

There is a hole in the trans the end of the gear sits in. You need to make sure the gear is sliding into that hole, and you may also want to rock the car as you do it because the gear may be clashing with the shaft in there.

[dave93cab]

Got it in and the speedo works again! I think the problem was that the bolt was too short and the first few threads in the tranny must be on their way out. No wonder it popped off, the bolt wouldn't hold anything. Quick trip to Lowes for a longer bolt and it went in fine.

Hoping for no puddle under my car tomorrow morning and a car I can drive again

Thanks for everyone's help and advice!

[native-texan_in_tn]

I missed your post about having problems with getting it back together but glad to see you got it working. Yes, I had to replace the bolt holding mine in, as well, for the very same reason.