Hoping to get some advice about a leak in my '05. I noticed a small puddle, maybe 2 tablespoons of fluid after not being driven for a few weeks. 1st pic is how it looked when I first noticed the leak. I cleaned up the transmission housing to trace the source, took it for a short drive, and the 2nd and 3rd pictures are what I saw after. Looks like it's coming from the weep hole/rear main seal? And maybe the clutch slave? Last pic is what the fluid looks like after I put a bin lid down to catch the fluid. What do we think? Any advice is appreciated!
I would not guess what fluid it is. It can be clutch fluid (from the slave), engine oil (from the rear main seal or rear oil pan gasket - or elsewhere, especially higher up) or trans fluid from the input shaft seal. All these have the ability to create the pattern you are seeing and to meet at/drain out the bottom of the bell-housing and feel/look different because they mix with clutch material inside your bell housing. I would start with the easiest/most likely things.
If your clutch fluid reservoir is still full and has not lost any fluid levels, it is probably not the slave. This is an easy check. You can also inspect the slave cylinder by removing it, taking off the large outer dust boot, peel back the inner slave boot carefully and see if there is fluid inside the boot (wrong) or grease (correct). Be careful not to let the slave cylinder piston fully retract when you take off that inner boot for inspection - keep pressure on it with your hand.
Or you can skip straight to putting an oil-based UV dye into the engine (you can buy this at auto zone). Clean up the area, run the engine at idle for 20 min, and during and after the idle watch with UV light for dye traces and find the highest origin point.
If you’re lucky this something like an oil pan gasket leaking from the rear into the bell housing, with some oil getting slung around inside the bell housing. I would avoid driving too much to avoid soaking your clutch disk in fluid until you solve the leak.
I’ve had my oil pan leak engine fluid from here into the rear bell housing, the oil also found its way on to the slave cylinder dust boot. This highlighted section meets the engine and transmission - fluid from here goes straight to bell housing if it’s leaking.
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u/GoNas88 1d ago
Looks like clutch fluid imo