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MY ES350 has around 84,000 miles and the transmission was replaced by the dealer 2 years ago when i had 44,000 miles (covered by warranty). I was in the shop for an oil change and noticed a small oil drip.
Based on the attachments, can someone tell if i have a transmission leak here or not? If so, is it a big job to get it fixed?
Edit:
The 2nd picture shows the leak from the top of the transaxle (below the air intake and engine). At this point i am not even sure if it is the top valve gasket of the engine that is leaking or the top of the transmission.
Last edited by TLPLEXUS; 06-27-12 at 10:20 PM.
Reason: Want to add more picutres
Actually, I did it myself.
No, all you have to do is empty tranny fluid, drop pan, and the gasket is right around the pan.
That's it.
After I did that, the drip went away.
It's an easy fix with Ford
That appears to be some type of cover or plug (retained by the one bolt) that is seeping a bit. Probably uses an "O" ring seal. It appears to be a minor issue but next time you're at the dealer have a tech look at it.
MY ES350 has around 84,000 miles and the transmission was replaced by the dealer 2 years ago when i had 44,000 miles (covered by warranty). I was in the shop for an oil change and noticed a small oil drip. .
Thanks for the detail information here everyone. It seems that the "Speedometer drive hole cover sub-assembly"'s O ring may be the culprit. I wonder why this part is used in the engine (to relieve some type of pressure)?
Mine has shown oil leaked at the speedometer driven hole. Has anyone replaced this part or just the o ring? Thanks
Tried to send you a direct message but it errored out.
Did you find a replacement o-ring for the transmission hole plug? I cleaned up the area and took the plug out yesterday. Surprisingly there was a lot of dirt in the o-ring. Not a very good seal. Although the bolt was quite tight I could see a the plug wiggling around. This can't be good for the transmission.
I removed the cap and cleaned it. I don't think this caused a significant amount of leak. I don't see where I can purchase the o-ring separately. It is sold with the cap. This o-ring is not round like typical o-ring. It is hard to find a similar one for the replacement. I can see the cap area gets dirty again. I will try to replace the o-ring with a same size o-ring used for hot/cold water to see if it helps. Please post if you find any solution to stop dirty oil around this top cap.
I removed the cap and cleaned it. I don't think this caused a significant amount of leak. I don't see where I can purchase the o-ring separately. It is sold with the cap. This o-ring is not round like typical o-ring. It is hard to find a similar one for the replacement. I can see the cap area gets dirty again. I will try to replace the o-ring with a same size o-ring used for hot/cold water to see if it helps. Please post if you find any solution to stop dirty oil around this top cap.
Maybe Ace Hardware would have the o-ring. The problem is I only have one car so I can't take it off and go to Ace Hardware to see if they have that type and size. Such a random hole with seemingly no purpose.
Did you guys ever fix this. Interestingly enough, I think I have exactly the same issue on my 2013 ES350. I was going to check the transmission fluid level, jacked up the front to to check around and saw the wet transfer case bottom, then peak more and found a very wet and dirty top of the case. Googled it and found this thread. And it looks much the same. Mine was even dirtier I think and maybe more widespread. Regardless I've cleaned it up, and done about as much eyeballing and photographing through the bottom and top to check for leak sources above the case without much luck (after removing the air box to get better access for viewing and cleaning). It just seems such a large area of some leakage, I kept looking for something dripping down and spreading out from there. The rear bank valve cover looked dry all around as much as I could see and too far to the right of this area to be a suspect. I guess it could squirt out under pressure and spread it further. It's definitely worst around that speedometer driven hole area though.
The first picture is the spot I noticed it. I don't recall seeing this when I changed the oil last time in May, or in the July timeframe when I was underneath working on the front grill lower trim that had come loose.
I definitely want to fix this leak if its from that speedometer driven hole cover gasket before I check the ATF fluid level. On second thought, maybe I should check the level to be sure it isn't too low with a leak. Although, the fluid didn't seem to be red, but then again it could just be old fluid at 168,000 miles (previous owner had transmission temp sensor and computer changed by Lexus at 120,000 miles).
So, I cleaned it to try to observe how it comes back to try to track it down. It would be interesting if that gasket fixes it. Thanks.
Last edited by Lexmart; 11-07-20 at 10:52 PM.
Reason: mis-spellings
So, I crawled under the car to see if I could remove that cover and replace the gasket with one I picked up at my local Toyota dealer for my 6th gen ES350. I got the fastener out, but I could not remove the cover. It would only wiggle back and forth about a quarter inch. I didn't try grabbing it from inside the engine bay by removing the airbox again. I will try that later, but wondered if anyone had tried removing it and had the same difficulty.
06-27-12, 04:43 PM
ES350 possible transmission leak?
