blackmxma

iTrader: (3)

I took my car in today to have the final drive seals replaced because they were leaking a bit, and I was getting sick of the spots in the driveway. The mechanic called me back tonight and told me they replaced them no problem but they were still leaking. So either the new seals were bad or the Final Drive itself is shot. My guess is its the latter.

So I guess that means new tranny unless I get really good news tomorrow that it stopped leaking. The thing is my tranny has only got 50K miles on it, and I take pretty damn good care of it. I've taken it to the drags just once, and only ran once, and I've taken it to a road track just a couple of times and never really beat it up. Has anyone else had similar problems? What exactly causes the breakage of the final drive?

blackmxma

iTrader: (3)

oh yeah, by the way, does anybody know the best place for me to get a 2001 5-speed tranny? what all goes into rebuilding/reinforcing transmissions?
thanks guys

blackmxma

iTrader: (3)

bump.....aaaggghhh, this sucks, I was just about to order my new wheels when all this **** happens

blackmxma

iTrader: (3)

oh well, thanks anyways. I'm getting another 4th gen tranny in from japan with 30k miles, some extended warrenty, and the factory limited slip

so, thats $2300 down the drain and no wheels to show for it. guess I'll be riding the stock SE's for another couple years

eng92

iTrader: (3)

There is also the possibility that the mechanic damaged the seal either when it was pressed in or when the drive shaft was re-installed.

I was also tired of all the gear oil spots on my driveway. I replaced my left side differential seal a couple of weeks ago. Pressing it in was no problem. Re-installing the axle was a little more challenging.

For the transmission to get a new (undamaged) axle seal to leak, you would either need to have excessive radial play in your drive axles as they turned or the machined sealing surface on the end of the axle is in poor condition. I would consider both of these to be pretty rare occurences for a car that is not abused.

Are there any other indicators that you have a mechanical problem with your transmission? (ie. unusual noises and/or vibration)
You may want to get a second opinion before dropping a lot of coin on another transmission.

blackmxma

iTrader: (3)

well, what happened was this: It had been leaking for a long long long time and not wanting to spend a lot of money I just let it go. I kept it full of oil (it wasn't leaking that much) but like I said I just got sick of the spots so I took it in. John (the mechanic, who I do trust) looked at it and told me the final drive seals were bad. He also put a little more tranny fluid in it for the mean time. He said bring it back whenever you can, so I waited a week and took it back. There was no oil in the fu@ker. Bone dry. It did come from excessive radial play in the axles. The seals were stretched to s#!t and evidently it was leaking a lot more than anyone realized. It never leaked much when parked so I didn't notice (I never got under the car either) so it must have leaked a whole whole lot when driving. So what can I say? I'm an idiot. Lesson learned.
anyways, new tranny on the way from Japan. Its the one in the Canadian Maximas with the limited slip (4th gen). Its got 25,000 miles on it and a 2 year warrenty.
thanks for your input eng92