I was coming home sunday when suddenly my car started making a very weird noise. I managed to limp into a store parking lot and apparently I had a transmission fluid leak. one that became evident on the wet pavement. I put more atf fluid in, the gear oil was fine, and limped home. any idea on where the leak is comeing from? hopefully it is a cheap fix ootherwise i am not sure if i could get the money to fix it. thanks in advance.

 

ViceMan

Well I need some more information about your vehicle. Year make model, three speed automatic?

Check the connections at the radiator. Should be two hoses coming from the trans into the driver's side of rad. Check hoses themselves as well.

It is an 87 GL Coupe 3 speed automatic. it does however have a 4 door engine in it, if the upper raidator hose i replaced a while ago is any indication.

 

ViceMan

So you should have some hoses that go into your radiator that come from your transmission like l75eya suggested. There are also three sensors two on the passenger side and one on the driver side I believe. Check those they could possibly be leaking. A simple way to pinpoint the area of the leak snag a piece of cardboard and slide it underneath the transmission and motor. Leave it overnight or a couple hours depending on how fast it's leaking. I know you possibly have oil leaks on there but you should be able to tell the difference between oil and tranny fluid. At least that will give you a little better idea of the area of the leak.

Ok, I have some problem with things staying in place under the car but I have weighed it down, so I should have something soon. Something I did do though was check the atf fluid level and it was near Full. I did put in most of a whole quart of ATF fluid in there when I stoped at the store i limped to on sunday. So I started it up, thinking maybe that the atf fluid need presure to start leaking and I did not hear the noise I did on Sunday even when I was not driving. I did see ATF fluid leak on sunday as a color was coming out from under my car, and I put a bit of atf fluid on the ground near my door and it was the same color as the stuff coming out from under my car. but now the atf fluid level is full and I don't see any leaks under my car. (It has been raining since sunday, so any leaks of the atf fluid should be easy to see.) So is it still a leak of ATF fluid that only leaks when driving? hope this info helps.

ok so I Left cardboard out over night under my car and for some reason failed to catch anything but motor oil on it, however when I put my car into nuetral and mover it back i could see some leak spots, which from there location would seem to indicate where they meet the raidator. so do i need to replace the hose then?

 

ViceMan

If it is a cooler line you wont get alot of leaking while the car is off. You will have to check the cooler lines while the car is running with pressure in the system. As mentioned there is a couple solenoids and a modulator that need too be looked at if the cooler lines check out.