But seriously, have not driven the car in three weeks due to knee surgery. Decided to take a ride to the store, when I returned I noticed a trail of redish fuild in the garage . Looks like trans. fuild . Did not look underneith was scared I would be to disgusted or my leg would cramp to get up . What do you guys think, she is a Y2K A4, Is the trans. leaking?

 

Don't know where else you'd find red oil in the car... Might be a simple fix - get under there and figure out where it's coming from. You're sure it's not coolant, right?

 

No it's not coolant. Looks like it coming from around the transmission pan, redish fuild. Time to check the service manuel.

 

My 98 A4 was leaking out of the weep hole at the rear of the transmission. It turned out to be the rear seal on the trans. It would only leak when driving and if I parked on a incline and the car was facing up.

 

Power steering fluid?

 

Same issue here, I think. Red fluid on floor toward rear of Y2K Vert. Dealership said it was the rear end seal or some such answer. They kept car for 4 days to fix it. Got it back and it was leaking worse than before. Dropped it off yesterday with a lecture on need proper quality control by Service Manager before he "signs off" that car is fixed.

I know...it was a futile conversation. I honestly do not know how these yahoos stay in business.

Mine is going to Cadallic dealership from now on. I think they are more competent.

LT

 

It's probably the tranny seal. There is a TSB on it and it starts leaking when initial start up under cold conditions. Then it will stop when warm... for a little while. Then it gets to where it will just leak. Mine did it too, and if you do a search, you'll find many others have done it.
The fix is dropping the carrier (rear end) and replacing the $60 seal.. but it's about $600 to drop the carrier.

I know, I did it twice in 3 weeks.

 

You are dead on. Stealership called and said the tranny seal was the source of my latest leaky problem. I asked them why they fixed the rear end seal then. "Oh, it was leaking too," they replied. Spent $500 on that one only to have the tranny seal cut loose in less than 5 miles?? Give me a break. It was the tranny seal all along. I use Royal Purple fluids and the tranny fluid is reddish color while rear end is darker...closer to dark grape color. First time around, I definitely told the service rep that it was leaking reddish color fluid. They should not have confused the two, in my opinion. I suspect they spotted a small leak in the rear end seal and failed to note (or deliberately ignored) that the tranny was the main culprit. So, they fixed the smaller of the two problems first and waited on the "$$ annuity" to arrive when the tranny leaked.

I hate not trusting people...but, this is just a tad too much to believe. No history of leaks and then both rear and tranny seal fail in short order? I am seeking someone else in the area to fix the latest problem. I refuse to give these folks any more business. I know...I was warned by Forum regulars. But, I guess I had to buy the lesson. Unfortunately, Birmingham, Alabama is NOT over-run with Corvette shops.

LT

 

sorry to hear that. Since I had to do it twice, I try to catch people that are swapping rear ends or replacing the left side seal so they can have the tranny seal done at the same time. It's an expensive 'oops' but the dealers should know to do that... or at least suggest it and show us the damn TSB.

Good luck

 

I am told that if the bushing is worn in the output shaft that the seals will continue to fail. I am having them go ahead and replace the bushing as well. This requires them to remove the entire tranny, but hopefully it will avoid a repeat seal job. One can only hope.

Stealership who originally screwed up mine and repaired the differential seal instead of the leaking transmission just called em to apologize for their error. They plan to refund money I spent on the differential. So, my opinion has mellowed just a tad even though it still angers me that I had to take the car to another repair shop before they would admit they goofed it up.

LT

 

well, i dont think you need the manual to tell you whats wrong anymore