wildrage

99 v6 mustang w/ auto tranny, 148,000 miles

About 6 months ago my tranny was dripping fluid out overnight. I took it to a shop up the street and they told me the dipstick tube was leaking and needed a new o-ring. They charged me $100 to change the o-ring and 6 quarts of mercon.

The tranny just started leaking again, presumably from the same place. Before I bring it back to them and flip out, can someone tell me how hard it is to change the o-ring? I'd rather do it myself so I know it's done right (if it isn't that much of a PITA). The guy that did it for me over the summer told me that the tranny had to come down a little bit to get to it. Is that true?


Thanks...

ewgoetz

First I would crawl under there myself to see where it is leakin from. If its leakin from the sme spot I would go back and tell em WTF?

wildrage

From what I remember it isn't real obvious where it's coming from. It kind of drips down and over along the case...and it's winter, so if anyone can give me some sort of visual conception of where to start I'd appreciate it. It's like impossible to follow it down - very cramped.

wildrage

So I took it back to the mechanic. He told me that I bent the transmission pan when tightening the bolts, and that caused the leak. I do remember really making sure they are tight - I guess I should have checked out the Torque specs. Could I really have bent the pan, though?

Either way, he told me it would cost $300 to replace the pan and fluid, which is totally ridiculous. A brand-new OEM pan is onl $22 on fastpartsnetwork, so the way I see it, it should cost more then what they charge for a tranny filter change + the cost of the pan.

I still can't beleive that I bent the pan....

nyuk98gt

wildrage:

You can see if you distorted the pan by looking at it. The bolts should be finger-tightened first and then use a criss-cross pattern (like tightening lug nuts) to tighten up the bolts a little at a time until they are torqued to spec. The Haynes manual has the torque spec that you should use.

For reference, an OEM pan runs about $65 from the Ford counter, you'll need about 6 quarts of Mercon (I wouldn't re-use stuff that was drained into a tub that previously held who-knows-what), and about one hour of shop time ($85/hr), plus tax. The $300 sounds a bit high to me.

HTH,

Chris

Cryptostorm

i doubt you actually bent the pan..... but if you overtighten the pan, the gasket will leak... take the pan off and inspect it... if it looks alright, get a new gasket, and put it back on to spec...

but if your going with the mechanic again, i would make him knock off a little on that price... cause in all likelyhood.. it was leaking there all along, and you replaced the o ring for no reason...