Some of this will be dumb questions, so please bear with me.

I've got a '07 V6 4x4 SR5 that has a nasty leak. Car is currently with my wife who is in MN for military obligations and I'm in the Chicagoland area so I don't have time to drive up there and assess things myself hence the dumb questions. Getting information from her when she's up there for duty operations is like pulling teeth as she rarely has time to get back to me.

I've been told it had left a puddle the size of a big softball and the fluid is purple in color. Funny thing is everything was eyeballed a couple weeks ago by a shop when I got an oil change and no leaks were reported. But I'm assuming transmission fluid? Based off that assumption the car is "grounded" and not going to be driven until repaired. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 5 speed auto trans on that car is a "sealed" unit in the sense that it does not have a dipstick or an easy way to refill the trans from simply lifting the hood? She seems to think the transfer case is what is leaking, "its all wet on the belly of the transfer case" she said but IIRC that case uses like 90W gear lube? Or does it also take a type of trans fluid?


I've included a photo she sent me. Any thoughts and help would be appreciated. I'll see if I can get more photos or info tomorrow. I just need help figuring out if there is a way I can avoid a tow to the shop.

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The transmission is sealed with no dipstick, that is correct. To fill theres a process to get it up to temp and add more through a fill plug in the side of the transmission.

Based on the picture, that looks like the transmission bell housing in the center, with the engine oil pan on the right side and trans pan on the left. The passenger motor mount and exhaust manifold can be seen in the top right. The transfer case will be further back. If its a transfer case leak, it will most likely come from the output seal to the rear diff or from the 4wd actuator.

As far as fluid color, purple isn't a normal fluid color. Could be older transmission fluid, which starts out red and will get darker if the transmission gets too hot. Also could be gear oil from the tcase with the oil rainbow shimmer making it appear purple. The good thing is that its really easy to identify gear oil with a sniff test. Gear oil smells like rotten eggs because of all the sulfur, whereas transmission fluid is kind of sweet.

For towing, some insurance providers have towing included or its like a few bucks a month extra. See if you can add towing coverage for a month and get it over to a shop to check it out. Even if you have to add it for the whole year, it will probably be cheaper than a tow and can come in handy later.

If the transmission is leaking and low enough to be a big issue she should notice it slipping and or not shifting properly, if she's not noticing either of these issues there's not a big issue yet mechanically if it's the transmission, if it's the transfer case there would have to be a lot of the fluid leaked out to cause a big issue.

That all being said with you only seeing a oil spot about the size of a softball and only seeing it recently that's not a lot of fluid lost, 1 ounce of oil/fluid would make a just as big or a bigger spot than that, which is not a lot of fluid lost at this point IMHO....so that being said if the garage you plan on taking it too to have it looked at is not that far away I would just drive it there as long as you're not noticing anything out of the ordinary in the way it's performing.

Judging by the location of the picture and the corrosion visible and what you folks have to deal with up there as far as that's concerned, it could possibly, and I say possibly, be one of the transmission cooling lines that has started to seep at one of the fittings. When it comes to initial leaks, a little looks like a lot, so hopefully it's not a serious concern yet. But, grounding the vehicle is a smart bet for the time being. When she does have some time, tell her to start it up, get under there with a flashlight and see if she can see any kind of consistent drip. Also, tell her to just put it in Reverse and Drive with her foot on the brake, and see if there is any kind of delay going into gear. That might indicate a low fluid level. Good Luck!!

Thank you all for your help. I was able to get a hold of her and based on the leakage we determined it was slow enough to drive to a shop. Wound up being just the trans lines as suspected.

Thank you all again.

Good deal! That's what this forum is all about!

The lines were shot, both were replaced. Now I gotta bring it in to a trans shop as its slipping on take off after a moderate stop. Monday I bring it in. Fun fun.

When they replaced the leaking lines, if they didn't use the proper procedure to check to fluid level it could be low on fluid and hopefully that's your issue, let us know the outcome.

So after a week of waiting the shop finally got around to checking everything out. They test drove it a couple times and finally checked the fluid and topped it off. Turned out to be a quart and a half low. Currently it seems to be ok and problem solved. We'll see what happens.