I've found my car is dripping from two relatively close areas. They are both left and front of center (sort of the area beyond the firewall under the steering column). They are a little over a feet from eachother. The one that is is more centered of the vehicle is more toward the front and the other one, near the tire, is more rearward. Overnight I had some cardboard under the car and the drip marks are roughly a quarter in size.

Any ideas?

 

What is the color/smell/feel of the fluid? Might simply be water.

 

Yeah but water evaporates, this does not. It's almost like hydraulic fluid. I'll smell it at lunch.

 

Alright, I checked the card board. It appears to be a really dark oil-like substance. It's too far driver side so it can't be from the oil pan. I'm guessing it's gear lube because the tranny is DIRECTLY above that area, you dolts!

I have a warranty for a few more thousand miles so I will see what the poopy stealer has to say.

 

Do you have a manual tranny? Crawl under there and take a look. A leak could come from one of three places:

(1) The drain bolt
(2) The fill bolt, located near the driver-side wheel well
(3) The position sensor, located a little further down and to the right of the fill bolt.

Good luck!

 

Duh, yes you do.

 

Yeah I'm familiar with that whole area as this story goes. I changed my lube once. As opposed to getting to the very difficult to get to drain plug I used the position sensor. However, I used a flat head (would now advise against this) and broke that piece. No big deal as DAVEB overnighted the piece. Anyway, since then, I've had my tranny worked on at AAMCO. They took it down and tore it apart. I really hope it isn't anything major. I'm surprised that there are two leaks spots.

 

HA! This happened to me on Saturday!!!!

Good luck, Sam!

 

Thanks, Dan.

 

I'm pretty sure I hate AAMCO right now. I talked to the service advisor at Nissan and they're thinking it's the tranny. In June last year I had my tranny dropped and the bearings replaced. They also replaced the clutch. I spent $300 for the clutch but I had to spend $400+ for a rental car. That whole **** cost me too much money. Now I'm finding out the tranny is leaking!?

You think it's possible to go to AAMCO and have them fix the leak and pay for a rental?

 

I would imagine they'll play the "the part we fixed is OK, now you have another problem" card on you. It's worth a try, though. Did they source the problem?

 

Is there any way to check the tranny fluid in our 5spds?

 

No, not yet. They still haven't figured it out. F'ucking idiots. A part of me can't wait for this warranty to be up so I can take my car to a trusted mechanic. I get the runaround all the time with this ****. No one offers loaners anymore either and service shops rental rates are not cheap enough. I hate asking for rides but I can't afford a rental!

I just want my car back so I can drop it. I've waited over two years.

 

You can put your finger in the fill hole. There is a writeup in the F&L section about doing a gear oil change. Except if you do a change, be very careful with the position sensor. It's plastic and doesn't like flatheads.

 

Well, best wishes in whatever happens...keep us all informed!

 

sounds like the brake or clutch master cylinder. My clutch MC went bad and was dripping through the firewall down my clutch pedal and onto the carpet....also was dripping on the "outside" of the firewall.

nasty stuff...

 

It might be. I'm still not going to rule out the tranny.

Does anyone else find it a bit peculiar that Nissan has had the car since last night and still hasn't figured out what's wrong with it? Oh wait, no it doesn't. Considering the fact that Nissan sucks total azz in the service department.

 

Alright, they called me back. As Spddracer (Joe, the mech who will help me with my car in the future) predicted, it is the the axle seal where the axles meet the tranny. By just telling him my symptoms over AIM, he thought that was it. The part will not be in until Wednesday but I can drive the car until it's in. The good news is the warranty covers the whole repair; no deductible.

 

UPDATE:

Well, this sucks. From what I've heard the dealership is claiming there may be some more malfunctioning parts. The service manager said something about a spline. I don't know. She said they don't have an axle. Anyway, she says that if this thing is broken the warranty will probably not cover it and I will have to take it back to Aamco. However, AAMCO only offers 90 day warranties on manual trannies. I'm beyond that. If this costs me money I'm going to be so p!ssed.

 

WTF does re-tread mean? Apparently that's what they did and I'm good to go. YEY!

 

 

I can't wait to look at the metal shavings in 60k miles next time I do a gear oil change.

 

lolz. Why not change it annually?

 

That doesn't matter. If I change it right now I'm sure I will find them. I just feel that the fluid was low this whole time and it caused some friction. No biggie.

 

Alright, now it's been over, I'd say, two weeks since I got my car back from the dealer. They replaced the axle seals. I just had my car dropped by a Nissan master tech in his garage and he found that it's still leaking out of the right differential seal. So either they put the wrong seals in (my car has a LSD) or they didn't get the axle in all the way/correct? The car was initially repaired by Nissan under extended warranty. It took me two trips there because they had to order the part. Now it's leaking again.

Is this request possible? I call up and tell them that I've been in twice and it's still leaking. I want them to order the part and when they have it in I will come in and leave with a loaner (something they have NEVER offered). My car is my daily driver and I can't borrow anyone elses car nor can I afford a rental. I am so pissed.

 

Bump.

Alright, I got off the phone with the service adviser and she says they do NOT offer loaners and the only way would be to go through the owners who, evidently, are out of town this week and will not be back until the end of the week. Here's my problem. I can bring the car in possibly during the week if I work through my lunch hour. The only thing I'm worried about is that they're going to see the h-techs/illuminas and claim that caused it. However, I know that the leak was there before the springs/struts were installed since I saw the drip before he even jacked up the front of the car. I still have an extended warranty but Nissan botched the job the first time. I need help.

 

Someone please post, I feel like I'm talking to myself.

Should I mention the new springs before they bring it up, or after they ask me about it? It's not like I'm trying to pull one over on them as the truth is that the leak was there before the front end was worked on. I just want to assure my best shot with them.

 

Going in shortly, any advice?

 

I would just wait to see if they say anything about the drop. If they give you crap you always have the fact that you have brought the car in a couple times and they STILL have not fixed the problem.

As far as a loaner, when you bring in your car start talking to a sales rep about your interest in whatever car you would like as a loaner. Then drop the line that you would love to take a car off the lot while your car is in.

I got myself a drop-top 350 like that... and it wasn't even my car that I brought in. I was doing it for my dad while I was visiting.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

 

Also, you can ask them how the springs botched their work. If the springs caused the leak and them to screw up while working on your car before they were even on the car, then they should definately explain that one to you.

If they give you any trouble about anything, including not wanting to do it under warranty, ask them to fully explain themselves and their reasoning. If it sounds fishy, call another mechanic, or better yet, another dealership's mechanic, right in front of them and tell them word for word what they are telling you. If that doesn't cause them to change their tune, nothing will.

 

Alright well they didn't give me trouble but they told me the problem has to do with the tranny and that it may not be covered because it would be the result of what AAMCO did last Summer. So I have to wait until the dealer's service manager comes back next week so he can decide whether they will fix it. I'm not sure because what AAMCO did was fix the tranny, not the differential and that's what I think is leaking now.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing what else I can do. Does anyone know if you can request a specific tech to work on your car when you go to the dealer? How do they pick which car to work on?

 

You can pick a tech to work on your car and ask they be allowed to do the work. They generally have specialities anyway or things they are more comfortable doing, but you can request someone specific work on your car. It is more dependant on whether they are doing another job already or if the service manager will let them as all dealerships do things a little differently.

Ultimately, it will be up to the mechanic / service manager whether or not a specific mechanic can work on your car. Be nice about it and I am sure you shouldn't have too much trouble but you may have to schedule it further in advance.

edit
In general, a mechanic will get done with a job and go look through the line-up of work and pick the one they are most comfortable doing or the next one in line. With things like oil changes and tune-ups, they get a set rate for the job and will be paid per job. For things like "it makes a squeek when I turn left," they get more of an hourly rate and may not be as likely to do it (since they may be able to do 10 oil changes in 2 hours and be paid for 2.5 hours or do 2 hours of diagnostics and only be paid for those 2 hours on the squeek job, just as an example).

Also, sometimes a specific mechanic may be the best in the shop on part X. They will typically be referred to that job and go by book hours for that job and make out on it every time... so they may be paid 12 hours for an 8 hour day. Its not a bad deal, really, as the customer gets his car quicker (and in better condition than if the job had been done by a non-expert) and the mechanic can do another job and possibly make an extra few bucks.

So, to answer your question in a round-about way, the mechanics generally pick their jobs (or the service advisor does for them) based on experience and the all-mighty-dollar... unless its a job nobody wants or is hard to diagnose then multiple people may work on it when they aren't doing other things.

 

Which goober assed dealer? Not that any of them are worth a **** in the area.

 

Barc,

Thanks for the informative post. I'm going to take my car to the dealer where the tech who did the suspension work on my car works. Hopefully he'll be able to work on it. So we'll see. I'll keep everyone informed. Even if he doesn't get to work on it, he can keep an eye on it to make sure the right things get fixed.

It is Falhaber. They're not that bad and haven't given me any problems regarding mods so I have very little complaints with them other than that their manager is pretentious. The adviser, Jan, is quite nice. I like her.

I'll let you know how this works out. I know Dayton (Matt Castrucci) is a ways away but if you need to take your car to the dealer I know that if you take it to Joe (Spddracer) he'll do a good job.