I screwed up early on when I panicked and took it to the dealer before making sure I had an actual continuous leak. I ok'd the work because I trusted his word that there was no fix except replacing the case or the whole transmission. If I had seen this area before they dropped the trans I would have most certainly driven it out of there. It has been one bad decision after another in this case. It must have something to do with age because I am usually pretty good at figuring the best way to proceed in these matters. It all started on the day I was going to look under the car and see if I felt like tackling the oil pan gasket myself and it gets worse each day. Oh well!

1998 Black SE Contour Sport V6 2.5L DOHC Automatic, Moonroof, CD Player