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By the way - I've ordered the parts to remove the intake, change the elbow and hose and add (continuous pressure) hose clamps, and put back together. I will report back the results once the parts arrive and I do the work.
Got around to fixing the heater hose leak (under the intake manifold) this weekend. It had been leaking a bit for a long time. The elbow had a part that just fell off when I went to take it off. I would recommend checking this if you have a 4.6L GT. No more leaks for now.
So now that the coolant leak is fixed, the "other" leak is more obvious. It is kind of hard to tell, but it has leaked a fair amount. This is not engine oil - engine oil is darker and smells kind of rancid.
This is more clear, and does not smell at all. So it is either manual transmission fluid (I don't remember what the Redline looked or smelled like, and I no longer have the container), or hydraulic clutch fluid (but when that is new, it has kind of a sweet smell which on the floor it does not have).
Any ideas? I would think I'm not the first to have this leak!
Yup, I'd say it's definitely clutch hydraulic fluid. It's most likely coming either from the slave cylinder (bad news 'cause you'd have to drop the tranny to replace it) or from a worn o-ring at the tranny end of the hydraulic line (better news 'cause it's accessible and cheap to replace). Check the hydraulic fluid reservoir and see if it's low. If you still have the stock plastic hydraulic line, now's probably a good time to upgrade to a steel braided unit.
Last edited by Dino Dino Bambino; 01-17-2019 at 09:51 AM.
Thank you Dino! I got up under the car this morning and the trans fluid definitely has a red tint to it - so I would say it is the hydraulic clutch fluid. It is not leaking from any obvious connections of the lines (which would rule out o-ring connections), but rather near a bolt on the lower bell housing, passenger side. It is Not leaking from the large hole in the bell housing.
Here are some pics of the leak itself, the trans fluid, and the master cylinder reservoir, I marked the fluid level with a red mark (it shows lower in this picture because the car is on jack stands).
So my last question - if it is leaking like this, why does the clutch seem to operate fine? Is this a common problem? Thanks!
The clutch will operate fine until either the fluid level drops so low that the hydraulic system begins to draw air, or the slave cylinder lets go altogether and the pedal suddenly goes soft.
01-09-2019, 08:20 AM
