First off here's a little back ground.

1995 3.4 v6, a4 stock 139k miles

Around 4-5 months ago my car developed an extremely slow transmission leak. At the time I had no clue what the problem was and continued to drive it. Till one day I decided to take a long drive with a friend. When we got back the whole thing was smoking and I thought I had toasted it, especially when it did nothing in reverse. I decided to just check if it had any fluid in it. Sure enough it's empty, so I fill it up and it runs like a champ.

Months go by and I keep it full, no problems, just a slow leak. Well about a month ago the leak seems to have gotten much larger and in multiple different areas. I jack it up and check it out. Seems like the pan was a little loose so I tightened it down a little. It helped a little, but it was still leaking from somewhere and at a much faster rate than when it first started.

I've just been trying to keep it relatively full, but if I fill it up the way it leaks, it leaks on the exhaust and leaves a huge ******* smoke cloud behind me. Extremely embarassing to say the least.

Now here's where the trail of death comes in. I get up today and was in a hurry so I didn't have time to put a pint or so of fluid in. I drive to school which is about 10 miles. Get out of school and drive home. About 3/4s of the way home it starts smoking like crazy. I decide it's only about a mile or so home so I'll take the back roads and nurse it home at 25mph. Well I get home open the door and see this:

and a little closer look at the trail of death:


I did a three point turn that's why that one spot looks a little funny. I was like holy **** how far back does this trail go? So, I start walking back and retraced my car's path. This trail went on for about 4.5 blocks where I turned onto my street from a major road and from what I could tell it was out there too. I'm guessing it was basically the whole way from when it started smoking?

I get walk back to my car and look under it to see trans fluid all over the place, with 99% of it absolutely pouring out of the front of the pan. This picture is a few hours after I got home because my dad was still at work, but you can still see quite a few drops at the front:

Sorry, you're going to have to turn your head on this one the old picture decided to stop working. I had to reload another one and this time used a different site.


I have to be at work at 5am tomorrow and get out of school at around 11. Then I'll have all weekend to work on it. If anyone can figure this out or has thoughts, ideas, or any help what so ever it would be immensely appreciated.

Thanks.

 

If its pouring out the front of the pan you think the pan gasket is bad? That would be my first guess

 

Actually from the looks of the stream Id say a front seal has blown out .

 

I've thought about changing that out. I can't really tell if its bad or not. I jacked it up a few weeks ago and cleaned everything off. I set it back down and put a piece of cardboard under it. When I looked it seemed like most was leaking out the back. I checked my Chilton's manual and it said that rear leaks could be the o ring on the speedometer calibration sensor. Then I thought well duh, if you jack the front it's all going to run backwards.

Then, today when I saw it pouring out the front I wasn't sure what it was. The thing that boggles my mind is how it just decided to start absolutely pouring out like it was. I didn't run over anything or have anything kicked back up at me. I'm lost.

 

What all would be involved in fixing that?

From the looks of things I don't think it's anything minor this time. I meen you don't leave a mile and a half trail like that of trans fluid and have everything be ok.

 

Is it a 4l60e?

 

Yes, it's a 95. I think they all came with the 4l60e from 93+.

 

I willing to bet that the tranny is toasted. Find a good used one to swap out or get a rebuilt one.

 

It's not toasted. It drives and shifts perfectly fine as long as there's trans fluid in it. The problem is that the fluid is leaking out so quickly. I put four pints in this morning and I bet by this afternoon it will be completely empty. The other problem comes with the fact that some of the fluid leaks on the exhaust and causes a huge smoke trail.

Someone in here's got to have a clue what this is?

Edit: Just tried to drive to school. Car wasn't shifting right and made the most smoke I've ever seen. Sure enough come home and check the trans fluid, bone dry. Less than 2.5 hours and it drops 4 pints of fluid.

 

Ditto

 

Well, my first rule of advice would be,stop driving the car until you get the leak fixed before you actually need a new tranny.

 

I stopped driving the car. I did something so much better than get it fixed... yet.

I went out and bought a 98 Formula, M6, in mystic teal metallic, with a loudmouth exhaust and, c5 wheels. It's a major step up. Now, I have something to drive and I can finally put a big block in my Camaro.

 

There's always that..... good luck with the new one! I wouldnt fix anything if I had enough money to buy a new car everytime i blew up a tranny lol

 

I don't exactly have that option anymore. I had been saving all of my money for around 4 years to get a 98+ LS1 car and I just got lucky. I found a really nice car locally for the right price and the timing worked out perfectly.

Picture from our north east Florida cruise we had earlier today.

 

Back from the dead:

For those of you who were wondering what this actually ended up being.... It was the front bushing in the converter. Supposedly the front bushing was swelling and scoring the inside of the converter. The stealership I took it to first diagnosed it as the transmission needing to be resealed = $650. Then after having it start leaking 4 seperate occasions after taking it back to them on each occasion they claimed it to be the front bushing.

They said that I needed a new torque converter, gaskets, fluid, etc = $550. I told them just to put it back together and give me my car back. It cost me $110 for them to put it back together including $8.75 per pint of transmission fluid. The bushing was an $11.47 part and that's all it took to fix it. It hasn't leaked a drop yet and drives just fine.

The only downfalls have been that they messed with the transmission cable so much the thing keeps popping off now. That and when I got my car back they hadn't reconnected the ac system. If anyone every has a similar problem I've learned this is pretty common and should be one of the first things checked out.

PS: **** George Moore Chevrolet!

EDIT: My Formulas actually blown up since then and I've been driving this since getting it fixed. At some point in time I'd like to have both of them working.

Formula blowing up thread:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generation-iii-internal-engine/726009-my-engine-committed-suicide-yesterday.html