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Joined: May 2003
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OP
New CEG\'er
Joined: May 2003
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The car is a '98 SE Sport woth the 2.5L v6, ATX trans. It has about 80k miles on it.
Recently the car has been randomly puking ATF. It started out with just enough to leave a little spot on the driveway and has been as bad as dropping ATF for the length of the car.
After the driveway slick job I put the car up in the air and didn't see an obvious leak. The fluid seems to be coming from the seam on the driver's side where it seems that the engine and the trans meet up.
The fluid is clean and bright red.
I do the four quart drain and fill every other oil change. I've been putting in Mobil One Synthetic ATF.
Drivability problems that might be related:
At the top of the revs at WOT, the car will lose power and waiver until you lift off the gas and let it upshift. It doesn't happen all of the time but it does it pretty regularly.
I've also noticed that upon rapid stops (almost kicking on the ABS and pretty much all the rime if the ABS does come on), the car seem to go into neutral. Upon re-starting forward motion the car will free rev to 3k or so then it feels like I did a neutral drop.
Unfortunaly The latter problem happens a lot as I've gotten spoiled by brake upgrade on the Mustang and find myself late braking in the Contour. The Stazi brakes are doing a wonderfull job puting up with my abuse.
Any ideas on the intermittent transmission leak? I plan on pulling it to see if it's something obvious.
Shawn
Last edited by Shawn95GTRag; 02/05/05 12:49 AM.
'98 Contour SE Sport v6 ATX - totaled in August of '05 
'95 Mustang GT Convertible - 5-Speed.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 39
New CEG\'er
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OP
New CEG\'er
Joined: May 2003
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I was thinking that maybe I'd get lucky and the fluid I'm seeing is 'just' power steering fluid. I went out to check the power steering fluid level and it was low. I filled it up and let the car warm up. I checked the ATX fluid level... and it doesn't even read on the dipstick!  Great. I checked and the car does still go into forward and reverse gears. It goes into both Drive and Reverse kind of rough. It kind of clunks into gear. I'm not driving the car right now but if I need to move it I'll be sure to at least top off the tranny fluid. Shawn
'98 Contour SE Sport v6 ATX - totaled in August of '05
'95 Mustang GT Convertible - 5-Speed.
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117 |
A few suggestions:
1. check the driver side axel seal.
2. do another drain $ fill so you know you're not over filling
3. part of the first quart of tranny fluid in the 4 qt drain & fill, consider some Lucas Trans fix
4. If you don't have a tranny cooler, get one. The added volume of fluid alone could be helpful.
I read another CEGer raving about Trans-Fix, I had a few similar symptoms, so I dumped some in with my drain & fill a few weekends ago. Seems to have helped to a very noticable degree, and I used less than called for in the instructions. I had harsh, loose feeling shifts before, like mild bang shifts in every gear in many situations - now smoother. Have not had one instance of the 'no fluid neutral' since. Next drain & fill, I'll follow the directions carefully & see what effect it has.
Must be that jumbly-wumbly thing happening again.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 39
New CEG\'er
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OP
New CEG\'er
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 39 |
Originally posted by TourDeForce:
A few suggestions:
1. check the driver side axel seal.
2. do another drain $ fill so you know you're not over filling
3. part of the first quart of tranny fluid in the 4 qt drain & fill, consider some Lucas Trans fix
4. If you don't have a tranny cooler, get one. The added volume of fluid alone could be helpful.
I read another CEGer raving about Trans-Fix, I had a few similar symptoms, so I dumped some in with my drain & fill a few weekends ago. Seems to have helped to a very noticable degree, and I used less than called for in the instructions. I had harsh, loose feeling shifts before, like mild bang shifts in every gear in many situations - now smoother. Have not had one instance of the 'no fluid neutral' since. Next drain & fill, I'll follow the directions carefully & see what effect it has.
Well, I put the car up on ramps today and took a look around.
1. Both axle seals looked great. There was a stain that looked to be from oil draining from the seal area but it was dry when I checked it. I'll keep an eye on it.
2. I did the drain and fill - like I said, it wasn't even reading on the dipstick. About a quart came out and it was dirty. There were a lot of particulates. It looked like dirt in the fluid. 
3. I picked up a bottle of Lucas Trans Sludge.. err-uh Fix and put in half a bottle. I couldn't bring myself to put the whole bottle in. That stuff poured thicker than honey and it was 70�° out! The trans took 3 1/2 quarts of ATF + that half bottle of Trans Fix.
4. I plan on geting one. I noticed that there is a pretty big tube / fin one stock. Do most people eliminate that when they go so a plate cooler, or run them both?
I noticed while the car was in the air that the leak is forming at where the two halfs of the tranmission come together, not where the trans meets the engine. The dirty / oily / greasy part was pretty much contained to the rearmost section of the trans case - right by where the O2 sensor is. The O2 wiring was soaked in fluid too.
I took it easy and drove around the block to warm up the car. I checked the fluid level and needed to add a half quart (total of 3 1/2 quarts ATF plus the half bottle of Trans Fix). I then got on the freeway and took it for a quick blast up to 90. It pulled strong and the shifts feel more authoritative than they ever have. When I got home I pked my head under the car and it's dry.
I plan on checking in in the moring and if it's still dry I'll take it to work... closly monitoring the ATF fluid level.
Shawn
'98 Contour SE Sport v6 ATX - totaled in August of '05
'95 Mustang GT Convertible - 5-Speed.
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7 |
How did this turn out? Recently I noticed some drops on the ground when I park somewhere for several hours, and upon inspection my leak (?) seems to be from the same general area, next to the wiring for the 02 sensor. That whole area was a bit gunked up too. I believe it was dripping right from the plastic connector clipped onto the trans, not sure where the fluid originated. Which seal would tend to leak onto that connector?
2000 Mystique LS
Duratec 2.5L, ATX
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