HELP!!! My auto trannys sprung a leak! (1x120kb pic)

[Phat Devil]

Well when i got home i found a very distinct trail of gearbox oil along the driveway. It drips very slowly when the car is turned off but there is like a thin steady stream leaking when the car is turned on!!!! :o

The gearbox still works perfectly, nothing felt different along the way home. There is still oil in the gearbox but i added a bit more to it anyways because of what i saw, just in case it does go out of oil.

Here is a picture underneath the car. It leaks from the hole where the arrow points to. The scary thing is that it leaking so fast! BTW its a gen 4.5 V6, and the cars only done 50k =(.



Thanks in advance !

[csaxon]

It appears to be the pressure vent. Perhaps you have to much fluid.

[sundarpn]

Check the level and make sure you don't have too much fluid.

I think you can seal it with a high temperature sealing compound. So to walmart and look at the auto section. Or if you don't know about what sealent to use go to a place like autozone and ask for help. This may not be a long term solution but might work well for short term. And most of these sealents can be easily removed too.

[csaxon]

Do not seal the vent!!

[Phat Devil]

Ok, i've taken it down to Toyota service department and this is what seems to be the problem. The spring behind the main seal is dislodged, the sleeve on the torque converter has moved and has been stratched. And there is a nice blue colouring on the inner section of the torque converter. However to replace the spring, seal and sleeve, + replacing all the fluids that had to be drained such as engine & tranny oil, coolant, oil filter... etc add to a whopping total of about US$1500 :o. They said they have actually never seen something like this happen, especially for a camry with only 52000km on the clock. Why am I always so lucky .

[skewe]

is your car still under warranty?

In US, it is 60k MILES engine/tranny warranty

[Phat Devil]

unfortunately its 4 years old, i think the warrenty is 60,000km or 3 years which ever comes first. Which kinda sucks in this case lol.

[csaxon]

How was this determined without taking the transmission housing apart? If they did take it apart, why didn't they just reseat or replace the circlip spring? What's the significance of the blue colour? This doesn't sound right to me. How was this diagnosed?

[Phat Devil]

The tranny was stripped and a report written. He said that the tranny oil pump was damaged but all the clutch packs and general mechanics of the tranny is still good. The blue colour on the inner part of the torque converter meant that it got really hot! Apparently it should have that colour on it. And he said the gearbox oil smelt a little burnt, even tho it was still pink.

They didnt just do the reseal with the circlip spring because they thought that there might have been more damage done inside the transmission from their initial diagnosis. Those seals were suppose to last over 200,000km without going, nor was that spring suppose to dislodge. Personally i think that the blamed on the pump because there wasnt really that much wrong inside and needed a reason to justify the strip and report he recommended. The car drove perfectly fine, the gears changed smoothly and there was absolutely no slipping on the way home as it was dripping.

[laphan]

Try to contact Toyota, they might be able to help under their "goodwill" policy since it is just 1 year out of waranty. I have seen Toyota paid all the bills or part of it before.