LONG READ

If you live in the NY / NJ area i'm pretty sure you've noticed that it's been raining for the last week if not more.

Anyway last night i wasn't in the "state" to drive so i let someone else drive the max.. (bad move). The person hydroplaned and went up a curb. No visual damage at the scene. i'll fast forward to the next morning.

i get up and have a look, everything is fine. I purchased lifetime alignments at firestone last time the max hopped a curb (due to rain yet again and lack of ABS.. = brake lockup = not fun.. the thread is in here somewhere) anyway, i figure what the hell, it's free can't hurt.

I take the car in for an alignment and wheel balancing (part of my purchased plan :-D) and i tell the guy to let me know if there's anything that looks out of place or damaged underneath the car.

I get the car back 3 hours later, and i'm told there's no damage. I'm relatively relieved. I drive to my friends house and we decide since it's beautiful outside that it's a good time to have a get together and wash our cars. We head to my house, i park, run inside for a minute, come back out and see a little leak coming out on my driveway by the driver side door. So i take a peak underneath the car, and the speed the tranny fluid was leaking out was that equivelent to a chicken having its head cut off (lack of better example).

Adrenaline starts pumping, i turn into a doctor, run into the garage for the uber jack (because the one that comes with the maxima sucks *****). The car has safetys put behind it and is up in no time. I jump underneath the car to try and figure out where the leak is coming from (kind of forgot that the tranny fluid would be hotttt) Anyway at first it looked to me as if the drain bolt got removed, but then i realized that was not the case, because the actual fluid wasn't coming from the pan it was coming from above and dripping down, condensing at the pan and coming out in a stream. So i flip out i start thinking omfg i have a crack in my tranny. I run my fingers around and can't find any crack, so i just clogged the upper part with paper towels and started calling some people to see if they had any tranny-sealant (stores here close around 6 and it was right around there). No one had anything of use so i just pretty much prayed for the best.

After about 15 minutes the leak stopped completely, in total i would say i lost 3/4 - 1 quart of fluid, but it doesn't make sense to me why it would just stop ( i know damn well my paper towels wouldnt due the trick). I had a mechanic come over and he said something about the transaxle or differentials holding a small amount of fluid, and that could've been it ( i don't know to much about either of these, kind of hoping someone has experienced something similar / can explain).

Basically it didn't make sense to me and i wanted to get some other opinions on this. It doesn't make sense that out of no where (especially hours after the accident / work done to it, that this would occur) and i know for a fact that it wasn't leaking before, because i would have noticed. And since it's stopped leaking there hasn't been any problem/s driving it or any leaks since.

Some background information that may help:
i had a tranny flush done about 3 months ago, car was at 115k it's now at 118.6k
CV boots are torn and there were previous brake problems, but since has been replaced with a pretty much all new brake system (rotors, pads, calipers, lines). (at first i thought that perhaps it was brake fluid, since both are red but it wouldn't make sense that it was dripping from the area of the tranny pan, unless there was a leak in the master brake cylinder and it was dripping down).

Anyway i was looking for anyone who can relate / has prior experience with anything of this sort? or perhaps even a maxima specialist in the area, because i definitly don't want to drag this out, if the tranny is leaking i don't think it'd be to wise to "ride it out". I would like to go to 5 speed but not quite yet ;-).

Ps. I parked the car on level ground overnight, so tommorow morning i can check for more leaks and re-measure the fluid to see how it's doing.

- thanks in advance

edit* also if anyone reads this thread for advice check this one too: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=434753 there may be something there that's not here (or so i'm hoping).

 

The fluid leaked out until the fluid level dropped below the point where the leak is coming from. Could be your axel seals.

ABS or a lack of doesn't cause your car to lose control and jump curbs. Being this is the 2nd time it's happened, you really should look a little closer at what caused it.

 

well as i stated.. the first time was due to brake lockup on wet roads, the most recent (2nd time) was due to the driver hydroplaning (yet again on wet roads.. and i wasn't driving :-/)

either which way, how much do axle seals run? are they easily replaced? can i take care of that while replacing CV boots? (was planning on getting coilovers and struts and springs and re-doing the CV boots at the same time, preferably after winter though..)

- thanks for replies in advance.

 

bump bump ... just checking to see maybe there's someone who may have missed this who can give me sort of advice?

if not im heading to the regional forums and looking for a maxima specialist familiar with our trannys on east coast.. (feel free to throw in some hints here as well)