Bill Dearborn

While I was under the car adjusting the alignment I noticed the transmission had a layer of oil on it. Upon further inspection I saw fluid weeping from the joint where the transmission bolts to the torque tube. Looks like my alignment will have to be redone after a trip to the dealer to get the leak stopped.

When I inspected the car before my last track event in the middle of October the transmission was dry. During the event I did notice some smoke behind the car every now and then under hard acceleration on the long straights. Since then I have probably put 400 street miles on the car. The front flange of the transmission where it bolts to the torque tube is fairly wet and when I put my hand on it my hand comes off wet with oil. There is a very thin film of oil spread along the bottom and sides of the transmission but when I touch that my hand comes off dirty but not really wet.

Was wondering if anybody else has had this issue. In 20 years of owning Corvettes (two C5s, one C6, one C7) with this drive line configuration this is the first time I have had a transmission leak.

Bill

ben dover

Never had the problem, but will be interested in what you find and the cause.

djnice

How many miles on yours? Have you ever changed trans fluid?

Bill Dearborn

9K miles with about 2500 to 3000 track miles. Trans fluid hasn't been changed.

Bill

Poor-sha

I have had this on both of mine. I think it's actually dropping down from the vent on top. I had number at the dealer multiple times and they first said it was fluid foaming and later just the trans getting hot. I have fluid all over the cradle and mufflers and just house it off with brakleen.

shizon'00

Yep, I've experienced the exact same thing. Found fluid on the trailer floor after a DE at VIR. After multiple rounds at the dealer, they believe it was a clogged vent that then blew out the seal. I don't know if I buy that or not because they also blew some other smoke up my ***.

Nonetheless, they replaced the vent and the seal and it's been good ever since and across multiple track days since.

badhabit_wb

Keep us posted. Hope it's something minor.

Bill Dearborn

That gives me some hope they won't have to pull the transmission to fix the issue. Hate spending all the time to get the street alignment correct to have them take it apart. They don't have the tools to do the rear caster.

Bill

NC94Vette

Unfortunately I have had leaks from both the front and rear seals (gaskets) of my 2015 manual transmission. Have had them replaced (twice), then they replaced the transmission case, then the entire transmission, and then had a leak coming from the reverse lock-out on top of the transmission. Worse on-going warranty issues that I have ever experienced. It has been in the shop about 20% of the time in the last seven months. I still have zero confidence that it is fixed for good.

Hope that your issue does not involve anything like what I have gone through. Mine started with exactly what you are describing with about 14,000 on the car. Good luck.

Kvettetrk

I had the output seal replaced, and now it’s weeping again. The vent tube was not replaced. My dealer said that we need to monitor this. I have about 12k track miles and 21k miles total. Any thoughts about this approach?

Thanks

GOLD72

Make sure it isn't a cooler line connection at the front of the tranny housing that is the source of the leak. Last month on my 2011 ZR1, the connection started leaking. Some of the leakage falls into the front bell housing and comes out of the bottom weep hole making it appear to be a front seal leak. Bushing fitting was replaced twice by the dealer without stopping the leak. Finally the cooler circ pipe was replaced which stopped it. I was there at the tech's inspection of the leaking and I may have kept him from erroneously pulling the tranny thinking it was a front seal leak. It appeared to be the connection leaking because the exhaust line adjacent to it was coated with ATF but not the driver side line.

spearfish25

Add me to the club. Just got home from a DE and found 3 drops of tranny fluid on the trailer floor. I'll get underneath to investigate later this week.

FYREANT

Subscribed for updates. Best of luck that its not a trans pull to fix, Bill.

Bill Dearborn

Dealer mechanic cleaned the transmission case and sprayed a white powdering substance on it to see where any leaks might be coming from. So far there hasn't been any more. The powder is still on the transmission and it still looks good after two track events this year.

Bill

badhabit_wb

Maybe it was slightly overfilled and foamed out some fluid.

spearfish25

Where is this valve on the top of the transmission? My leak appears to be mostly on the driver's side of the transmission. There's fluid around the fill plug but it appears that there's run down and splatter even above this. Then it follows gravity down the bottom of the transmission both forward and aft.

Atl-10Z06

My 2010 C6Z06 with 34k miles had the same problem. I tracked the car at numerous hpdes and autocross event over 7 years. Thank god I had an extended warranty as the dealer had the car 4 times for weeks at a time replacing all the transmission seals and then the diff seals.

Poor-sha

That sounds right for the vent tube. You need to go faster so it's blown all over the bottom of the trans and rear suspension.

spearfish25

LOL. I have some splatter on the rear leaf-spring. Still plenty of room for improvement though!

I figure the problem is real if the corner workers black flag me. So far, no flag.

badhabit_wb

I'm so slow mine is dry!