Oro, are you saying that the ATF that was coming from the top of the bell housing was probably just from improperly filling it up? If this is the case then the ATF coming from inside the bell housing would still be from a leaking gasket, correct?

 

 

Exactly. Oh well. I will figure it out eventually. I have generous parents who are lending me an older car until I do. I am most definitely keeping my ES. I love it. Only 220k too. I am thinking that I will probably take it somewhere to have it looked at and see if they can tell me what the problem is--does anyone have any objections to this? I might still do the work on my own depending on how time consuming the work will be.

 

All,

I would like to thank you for your help. I ended up taking the car to a local shop for them to drop the tranny and give it a closer look. It appears that my torque converter failed and caused my tranny pump bushing to stick to my torque converter hub. I am opting to have the transmission rebuilt.

 

 

I considered other options--but at the end of the day, I know every single mile of history that my ES has and have kept it very well maintained. If I bought a new car I would still end up fixing my ES because it has plenty of value left (to me) as a daily driver considering it is in great condition. So it just made sense to go ahead and get the repairs done.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I always appreciate it. I am sure I will be back haha.