Hey so I noticed I have some fluid on my tranny. Any idea what might be the problem?





Is this something that will be fine for a while?

axle seals are most likely leaking. this should be fixed asap. I drove with mine leaking for a few months and it destroyed my tranny. I did it on purpose with knowledge it was happening tho cause I had an extra tranny i was putting in.

axle seals arent too hard to replace, you can do it with the tranny on the car.

How much for a shop to do?

Give Kevin a call...

774-766-7462

Haha so that means its expensive

id estimate 2 hours of labor.

if you have a jack and jack stands and some sockets you should just do it yourself. its really not that hard, save your hard earned money. New axle seals are about $10/side.

Is there a write up anywhere?

Auto or 5 speed transmission?

If your an auto, then it's engine oil your looking at not tranny fluid which is red.

5 speed

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=555482
read steps 1-8. those show how to take off the axle hub then you just need to pry the axle out. Passenger side is the same with the addition of 3 bolts for a bracket that holds the axle to the engine. I would probably search for a little more info tho.

Also that thread has part numbers for the seals you need.

That looks like rear main...

is that the same as the passenger side axle seal? cause that is my guess.

Rear main seal of the engine, that black plate is the access port to the flywheel teeth (where the engine and tranny meet). I would know for sure if I felt it (tranny oil being thicker and more like grease) but it looks thin enough to be engine oil.

He also can snap pics of the axle seals fairly easily with the wheels off or maybe turned to confirm or disconfirm the seals as a source.

It was more than likely the actual play in the bearings not the seals themselves. As long as you kept putting oil in and didn't mind tranny oil all over your driveway if it was just bad seals but with good bearings it wouldn't really do much other than leak unless something went INSIDE the tranny anyway.

I agree with Fr33way, it might be the rear main seal.

Notice that the place where you put a flathead to separate the trans from the engine is in the picture.

Right, where "Nissan special tool #21231654blahblah" goes. I think a shot of each seal would give us a pretty good idea of what's going on.

^ I concur.

check the fluid and smell it. If it smells like gear fluid its coming from the tranny/axle seals something. If it smells like normal engine oil its the rear main seal.

Son of a *****! I just dropped the car off in the shop. It looks like it will need a new rear main seal and a rear wheel bearing. This guy is very fair with his prices, do you think it will run me over the $600 mark?

I figure : $200 for wheel bearing

: $300 for rear main seal

That's a rear main seal leak. Axle seals aren't anywhere near that leak source. Possibly an input shaft seal but that looks like motor oil to me and that's where both an RMS or input shaft seal would leak from.


edit - just noticed you determined it was the rear main seal.

The prices you got quoted are pretty reasonable for a shop to do it.

It is almost certainly a RMS leak, I too have it on my maxima but then I will wait till the leak becomes really bad.

$300 is very very very reasonable and you truely have a great deal. I read thro the google posts and it is PIA to replace a $25 seal, it costs a lot in labor (in excess of $700).

i know im coming into this thread kinda late but i am having similar issues. my tranny looks very similar to the one in the pics above (fluid everywhere). my questions is if it gets bad enough, would it cause the car to smoke? i.e. if the fluid got too hot and tried to burn off.

also, i have a leak near the oil pan but not near the drain plug (the plug itself is clean). could that possibly be the oil seal?

I basically have the same issues as you. I have oil all over my transmission, and it down and around the oil pan, and I believe it is getting worse. I think along with the RMS I may have a crank seal that is bad.

The oil would have to get on the exhaust to smoke. Your eng should not get hot enough to burn oil off. Check for leaks around the valve covers, they could leak on the exhaust and smoke. My car has had a small rear main leak for years.

I would get a clutch as well unless it is new.

I guess mine has become really bad or its something else then because the smoke is coming from just in front of the 'flex tube' part of the exhaust. I would need to get under there again to determine if the oil if dripping down or running down but its definitely getting to the exhaust and smoking enough that if i have the windows rolled down at a stop (after the engine has warmed up) i can smell and sometimes see the smoke (it gets pretty windy in the texas panhandle).

a RMS won't cause smoking but a bad rear VC certainly will.

if you've got oil dripping from the tranny as pictured above remove the black flywheel inspection plate. Look up inside and you'll see the top of the inspection window (it's domed/curved). if you see oil on the top (the domed/curved area) of inspection window opening it's the RMS.

you can also look up into the area(s) near the rear VC. if that's gone bad it'll be really obvious. oil will have wetted the rear exhaust manifold, the manifold bolts and all that stuff. look up into the engine right at the right/passenger side axle knuckle. you should be able to see the fabric covered O2 sensor wire and a silver heat sleeve that protects an ~1" hose (can't recall what hose it is). if those have oil on them, it's the rear VC.

If your RMS is leaking, I heard eventually it will drip onto your gears causing slippage(or flaring, spiking of gears), which is what I think happened to my last tranny (97 auto). It was leaking from about 2 or 3 spots, and eventually got worse and worse(from 2nd to 3rd). Dont know if that helps but if thats your case get er done.

well fellas, i took it to a mechanic over the weekend and he initially thought it was the Rear VC gasket but when he put it on the lift, he confirmed my fears...the RMS is leaking . I got one quote of $300 + parts which sounds pretty good from reading around the forums. I am going to get a few more quotes though.

Anyone around the Texas Panhandle region that can do this want to make a few hundred bucks?

I don't know how the engine is connected to the auto tranny but then even if engine oil slowly made it to the tranny from the RMS would result in slipping.. Visocisties of ATF and engine oil are almost the same. Am I missing something in your post.

The only thing I'm guessing is your fluid ran low? I've got a small leak with my passenger side seal.. was going to just top of the fluid until it gets warmer and then replace the seal. After reading your post, it seems like it could potentially be a bad idea though.

Really depends on the exact problem. If the axle seal is leaking because there's too much diff play, then it's going to die sooner or later anyway.

If it's just a damaged axle seal (which don't tend to 'just go', usually it's damaged when installing or removing an axle), then you'll be fine to just keep topping it off until you eventually replace it.

How can you tell if theres too much diff. play?

Grab the axle, try to move it around.

Ok, do you have to replace the trans, if the axles move around?

No, It just means you will need new differential bearings. The sooner it gets fixed the less likely you will damage anything else.

Replace or rebuild.

If you decide to replace, I recommend having the replacement opened up before installing it. Otherwise you could be installing the same problem again.

How much would it cost to get the differential bearing replaced? like hours of labor and price of parts.

Just the diff bearings? Not worth doing just the diff bearings, if you're going to do anything to the trans, rebuild it all the way (new seals / bearings (IPS, MS, Diff). For a shop to rebuild the trans for you, plan on spending ~$800 - 1100. If you do it yourself, the bearing / seal kit will cost ~$200 or so, and your time - reading and doing it.

To see if the diff bearings are bad, there are two key signs. 1. Loose axles - do they slide in and out, "over play"? and 2. Grinding noise when rolling / coasting. It's pretty distenct and hard to miss .... unless you just don't know at all what to listen for.

As for the sooner than later aspect, like most things, the sooner the better / less chance of something else going wrong or getting worse.

Interesting thread. I too have the same type of leak. When I changed my axles during the summer I notice a wet spot of oil where the auto transmission meets the engine. Someone mentioned RMS as well as crank seal, I was under the impression they both are the same. I doubt that I have that black flywheel inspection plate since the car is auto, so how can I see if its the RMS or not?

I will be doing a 5spd swap in the spring, so I would like to know which seal I need to purchase. Any writeup on changing it? Where exactly is this? between crankshaft and flywheel?