Posted: 9/4/2008 12:24:25 PM EDT
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Vehicle in question is a `99 Windstar 3.8L Transmission developed a leak when my wife was using it to deliver newspapers.(Think "STOP-START-STOP-START" action around the various neighborhoods.) It would only leak BAD after it was good and heated up. (But if I left it cool down and added fluid, you could drive it back home 40+/- miles w/o another drop.) If I drove it back and forth to the train-station (maybe ten miles one way), or to the warehouse where she picked up her papers, going down I-70, not a drop. On a rare occasion, it seemed to hesitate in shifting, but that was not a 'low on fluid' thing, as I checked. We took it to a local shop, he rebuilds it to the tune of $1800 for the rebuild and some brake work. First Saturday night out with Mrs. Tanker delivering the Sunday papers, massive fluid leak. She calls me all hysterical, I take the car over, she transfers the papers, and goes on delivering. I checked the stick - no fluid showing on the stick, and you could easily follow Mrs. Tanker's path through the neighborhood. I put a note on the windshield saying "It's broke, we'll pick it up around lunch" (DUH!) and my buddy takes me home. I call the mechanic and say, "It's sitting in 'so & so' neighborhood, tranny fountained. Go get it and see WTF is up." He picks it up w/ his rollback, and two days later says, "It was five quarts low on fluid (NO SHIT!), but I filled it back up and have been running it all over, and done all sorts of tests, and I can't find where it's been leaking." I asked him if somehow the bell housing may have developed a crack, and it only leaks once it's good and hot. "No, if the housing was cracked, it'd start leaking right away." Transmission cooler and lines seem to have been ruled out as they're dry, and forward of the leak. I want to tell him to go get another housing and swap it out, but was wondering if anybody else had any ideas. The van's worthless if I can't venture more than a few miles from home for fear of the tranny crapping out, and he doesn't seem too energetic about fixing the problem that he's been paid to fix. (Please, no "It's a Ford!" comments.) 
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It is coming out of the overflow. I have had Fords since I got my license and everyone of them has had an overflow tube or port. Constant stop and start or hard hill climbing really heats up the fluid and it expands. If the the transmission were to be sealed and have no where for the expansion to go, it would blow a seal or gasket. Just make sure that you top it off after you know it has "purged". Mine would leak like it busted the case for a few minutes and then would be fine. I would much rather it do this than blow a very expensive seal. |
| I agree, it sounds like it's blowing out through the vent. The vent itself is on top of the housing, you should be able to see it from under the hood if you removed the air filter box. Lots of stop and go driving - like delivering papers from house to house - could heat the fluid up and blow it out the vent. Windstars for whatever reason never seem to cool the transmission very well either. |
He tells me that this was one of the first things that they looked at after they brought it in, and that it's dry as a bone. And the leak was a new thing, we never had a problem with it until very recently, and we've had it for quite a few years. Up and down the East Coast, down to Disney, and never a hiccup. And what makes me think that it's something else is the amount of fluid that was blown all over the neighborhood. This wasn't a heat up and hiccup a little fluid. As I originally stated, this was 'the stick is showing no fluid at all when I got there to check it' sort of thing. Subnet - the leak comes up while we're out on the road running her route. When he had it in the shop and was supposedly running all the various tests and had his lift to check things out, he says that he can't find the leak. |
I don't trust your mechanic. As I said above, my tranny dumped about 1.5-2 quarts in no time, it was gushing. |