Hey.. Some of you might know of my recent purchase of my 98ls.. As great a car it is.. It's been a lot more trouble than my 91.. While driving on the highway today I noticed white smoke in the rearview.. Pulled over to notice a trail of fluid and it burning under my car.. Red in colour, pretty sure it's transmission.. Anyways, it leaked a lot in the time I pulled over with a trail behind me.. My question is what could this be? Is this a seal of some sort that broke.. I got it towed to Canadian tire cause Im far from home.. So I'll find out what it is tomorrow.. But I'm trying to get an idea of what this might be.. Anyone else experience this? Anyone with any insight?
Thanks for your help

 

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Tranny drain plug loose, pan gasket leaking, tranny line to the radiator blown...I suspect the later.

 

line oto the trans cooler in the radiator is a simple fix, but make sure its the trans leaking as the PS fluid you use (to dexron III/mercon spec) can also be red.

 

Well Canadian tire didn't do much.. Charged 65 to tell us it's coming from somewhere near the top of the transmission and to check it out they'll have to drop it.. I drove about half an hour with the car and it's not leaking noticably.. I still need to take it to a shop.. Hopefully they don't have to drop the tranny to figure it out

 

What they're saying might even be incorrect, so there's still hope it's something more minor

 

damn man that sucks.

check the fluid levels on the trans dipstick and the PS dipstick. which one is low?

 

I know the tranny is full.. Power steering I haven't bothered to check cause it's not acting up.. Worth a shot though

 

Also be aware that Toyota Coolant can be red, so it could be a radiator/antifreeze leak.

 

If you tranny fluid and powersteering fluids are good and stay at a constant level, I am willing to bet that your valve cover gaskets are leaking.

 

valve covers wouldnt leak red plus it wouldnt leak THAT bad to leave a nice trail.

 

when my tranny line busted thats what it did. A puddle the only difference was the slipping tranny haha.

 

Dude, I would take that car somewhere where they know what they are doing.

I had a Toyota Dealer accidentally over-fill my Tranny Fluid (Red) and when it got hot, the fluid came out of an overflow tube near the top of the transmission. The fluid dripped onto the exhaust and burned. Did the car suddenly lose power at all? If not, it could be something loose somewhere.

 

where is the car now ?
Bring it by and I will take a quick look at it for you.

 

Hey tjw.. That might be true what you said
it's not leaking right now from what I can tell
this was one of the longest trips I've made with this ls
every fluid in this car was topped up when I bought it by the owner
it's possible he might have overfilled this one and long drive overheated it enough to get rid of the excess.. I don't know about loss of power cause the fluids starting burning off of the pipes and I pulled over immediately

SK I'm gettin your contact info from jeff with the 95 ls.. I'll let you know.. Thanks for the offer

 

Check your fluid levels, clean off the pipes and go drive it to SK! Hopefully you only had the same problem that I did.