Mystery transmission fluid leak

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fblainen11

New member
Quick history: I have a 97 automatic 4runner with a rebuilt transmission.
I had trouble shifting last year and had the dealership drop the pan and drain & refill. 1 week later I had a leak. So I bring it in and find out that I'm still having trouble shifting. They drop pan and reseal then tell me the kick down cable was not adjusted correctly. Adjusted that and I havent had a lick of trouble since May of 14.
Fast forward to this week. I get a CEL for O2 sensor. I ordered the part and got underneath to spray some penetrating oil in preparation for swapping the part out tomorrow...low and behold there is a small drop of transmission fluid..

So, I paid the dealership to do something that didnt need to be done (it took them forever to diagnose it was the kick down cable adjustment). Now 1 year and two months later I have a problem I didnt have before they "fixed" it and I'm 2 months and 2,000 miles out of their warranty.

I didnt see any fluid on the line....here are some photos. Any suggestions?
Does this connection look normal?
http://1drv.ms/1LgRrsE
1LgRrsE
 
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fblainen11 said:
Quick history: I have a 97 automatic 4runner with a rebuilt transmission.
I had trouble shifting last year and had the dealership drop the pan and drain & refill. 1 week later I had a leak. So I bring it in and find out that I'm still having trouble shifting. They drop pan and reseal then tell me the kick down cable was not adjusted correctly. Adjusted that and I havent had a lick of trouble since May of 14.
Fast forward to this week. I get a CEL for O2 sensor. I ordered the part and got underneath to spray some penetrating oil in preparation for swapping the part out tomorrow...low and behold there is a small drop of transmission fluid..

So, I paid the dealership to do something that didnt need to be done (it took them forever to diagnose it was the kick down cable adjustment). Now 1 year and two months later I have a problem I didnt have before they "fixed" it and I'm 2 months and 2,000 miles out of their warranty.

I didnt see any fluid on the line....here are some photos. Any suggestions?
Does this connection look normal?
http://1drv.ms/1LgRrsE
1LgRrsE
Click to expand...

Welp I think your issue could be with the braze job on the filler tube. I've seen this time and time again but I suspect that the pores of that repair may be where the leak is coming from.
 
I thought that looked a bit shoddy. How do they connect from the factory? Is this something that is easily fixed? I have 0 experience with brazing or welding.
 
fblainen11 said:
I thought that looked a bit shoddy. How do they connect from the factory? Is this something that is easily fixed? I have 0 experience with brazing or welding.
Click to expand...

they are spot welded into place along with a sealer/epoxy . Anytime we seen them at the dealer like this we just replaced the pan every time because it seems once the damage is done it's hard to repair because of the thickness of the pan. Basically the pan itself is damaged more so than the ring around the filler tube. Its not impossible to fix but u have to know what you're working with first metal wise.. given air flow and such elements to the dripping fluid, it really blows all over the place and it's deceiving to look at. The proper approach to diagnose the issue, that the dealer should of used would be a UV dye leak detector for transmission which would pinpoint the leak which would probably appear weeping from the repair someone made

TA-1002_Other2_Wi-WithOutSkidPlate.jpg
 
Yeah, that tube connection looks real sketchy. Someone must have busted it off at some point and then tried to re-attach it.

Since you've already forked out a bit of money and I'm sure the prospect of spending more for a new pan and having it installed doesn't exite you, clean up the area real good and monitor the leak for a week or so. Make sure to check the transmission level often as well.

If there's no move in the fluid level and you're just losing a few drops a week, that's not really nothing to worry about. There's so much fluid in your transmission that it would take a very, very long time to drain out from a couple drops a week.
 
factory pans run from 131.13 up to 163.57. call a junkyard and see if they can sell just a trans pan. you can always reject it if it looks too sketchy and they wont sell total crap. worth a shot. also talk to the dealership they should have seen that and raised question to it
 
fblainen11 said:
What if I cleaned it upnreal nice and slapped a layer of jbweld on it?
Click to expand...

That could work, but it would need to not leak at all for a few hours for the epoxy to set. If it seeps through while it's still setting (possible, since a by product of epoxy hardening is heat) then the JB weld will flake off.
 
I'm bringing it in tomorrow. If they won't take of it reasonably I'll try JBWeld.

I could drain fluid, fix, let cure, refill.
 
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