Lexmex

That goes back to my earlier picture about the sealant that helps mate the tranny to the engine block...obviously they have to do it again.

TunedRX300

Make sure it is not power steering, Toyota T-IV ATF can be used in PS as well.

salimshah

Red and golden/brown/black would make sense but pink?

The only Pink is the coolant.

Good Luck. (seems you need it).

Salim

Fern

No doubt its not coolant.
T-IV fluid in drops looks pink, just looks red in larger quantities.

Has the same viscosity as T-IV.

At this point, I need Toyota to have a representative present with all the %$@* I've been through.

salimshah

Just sharing info which might be useful ...

The trans fluid level is generally above the pan gaskit line. When you park, if there is problem with the seal it would drip.

Lexus trans pan that I dropped was on a SC and that uses FIPG goo to form the gaskit (harder to use, pain to clean but more forgiving).

The paper gaskit I used was on a GM car.

Separating the pan was a pain. To brake the seam, I had to use a broad flat head screwdriver and ended up bending the corner of the pan and had to hammer it back in place. On the SC, I used FIPG and a thicker bead took care of the bent out of shape problem.

Then there is o ring on the dip stick extender tube.

Then there are connections ro the radiator lines. Last would be the seal on Torque convertor shaft.

Any way to confirm that the leak did not exist before main seal repair"

Salim

Fern

Salim, thanks for the input,

No, no way to be certain leak did not occur before the rear main seal, it was just noticed now after all the stuff I've gone through.

The trani fluid leak appears to be up above and slightly behind the oil pan on the passenger side.

Where is the trani vent tube?
Could this area be the Tconverter shaft seal?

salimshah

Some one with the worshop manual can pin point the vent tube.

Caution the following is applicable to SC.
The only tube that I rember is the one that accepts the tans-dip-stick. One end is welded on to the trans-pan and an O ring connects to the upper half which is held on to the engine block. This O ring needs to replaced every time the joint is separated [I am **** about this stuff].
Here is a leap ...
If RX has same setup, when they seperated the engine block from tans, this tube would have been stessed [bottom half is on trans, the top half is the engine block]. Right thing would have been to drop the trans pan.

PPl who have dropped the RX trans pan can tell if the tube is on the pan or not. Check how the dip-stick makes its way into the trans from the engine side. When they separate the exngine and trans, some thing has to be done about it. Improper care can lead to leak.

The TC seal is on the trans side right acoss the main engine seal. Externally, you would see the oil leak from the same spot from where you had the engine oil leak.

Salim

Fern

This is gonna be another long winded post.

Lexus canada will not send rep to be present to inspect nature of leak as they say there are avenues ie: technical support line that techs can use when they have exhausted all possibilities of repair. They say, we haven't gotten there yet.

Believe it or not, I still believe in this tech's honesty, and decided it was only fair to let him view the area where the leak is.

Wife took car down this afternoon at 3pm and they confirmed the source of leak was driveshaft seal... They appoligized saying, " we don't know how the leak got past us..."

Since it was a part that they removed and installed, SURPRISE, they are willing to take care of it no charge...

Scheduled appointment for Tuesday when she works from home.

I'll keep you posted on how things pan out.

salimshah

Fern:

Keep in mind that there are two drivshafts. Being ****, both should have been replaced in the transaxle overhaul.

Fortunatley, to remove the drive-shaft, the trans or the engine do not have to be removed


Please ignore my diatribe on SC trans. The dip-stick posotions are very different [rear wheel drive vs front wheel.


Salim

Fern

Interesting thought...

The truth is that the car never tracked as nice and true as now after all the leaks... I know they did an alignment since the cradle had to be removed for the rear main seal replacement...

Could it be, just could it be that, when the car was put to spec with the alignment, it threw things so far away from there previous spec that it made the seals on the driveshafts leak?

I have always noticed a tight steering when driving and attributed it to the "aways awd factor" unlike Honda/Acura which has a different configuration, which personally I think is much better thought out. AWD only kicks in when you need it, therefore for the other 10 months of the year your not wasting as much gas.

I had also noticed in the past when turning in tight radius that the car exibited the same symptoms of whining as my old Pathfinder did when it was in AWD mode... (alignment off ?) The previous tires I had on the car were Michelin Pilot Winter tires which I used all year round, and after about 65,000km were replaced and I though nothing of it since they weren't all seasons to begin with...

I don't know, just drawing at straws I guess.

Can't for the life of me understand why I never had a driveshaft seal leak before (even when the trani was overhauled) and now I do..

Regardless, dealer is repairing it for free, I just have to deal with the inconvenience and repeated returns..

Lexmex

It's an interesting theory. My alignment gets tortured down here, and I have not had any leaks (except in the exhaust area, which has caused a few problems...banged up OEM main cat (road debris), accordion section broken).

I want to go back to the discussion about stresses. At least when the new tranny is mated, the metal to metal contact between engine block and tranny won't be smooth. Keep in mind that tranny and engine block were mated to together in the same way for a long time. Think of a key in hold. So what happens when the juncture point of the new tranny comes into contact with the engine block...not quite a smooth transition, even though it comes off an assembly line.

Over the years, those stresses cause what would otherwise be smooth contact from the factory to get tiny warps, maybe a slight fracture, so that a new tranny definitely won't line up. Hence, leaks.

Salim's earlier comments are well taken. That same stress was pushing on the area where oil, not just ATF comes out.

salimshah

Drive shaft seal only provides rotations member (shaft coupling) to come out and rotate, but keep the trans-oil inside the transaxle. It has very little to do with steering.

Wear is the main reason to leak, repeated change of fluid and possible thinner (fresh vs. old and thicker) fluid is the typical reason to spring a leak*. Deformation of the seal during coupling mating is unlikely. [very different from the trans-engine block mating where they hang the trans on the shaft]

{* some times the crud is your friend ... similar to crud on water-tap shafts which keeps the water from leaking}

My gentel reminder was to get the other seal replaced as atleast one has reached end of life. [You can postpone this till you actually spring a leak as replacement requires much less disassembly ... you have to draw a limit and can not keep on doing preventative repairs]

Salim

Fern

Salimshah & Lexmex,


thanks for all your input.

I will certainly be at the dealership Tuesday morning bright and early 7:30am when service dept opens to see for myself the origin of the leak and will be certain to inspect the opposite driveshaft veeeeerrrrry closely!

Cheers guys,

Fern

TunedRX300

Actually for engine oil and ATF in RX300, viscosity shear or thin when fluids are used vs new. Sludge buildup is a false seal to an otherwise leaking seal. I know stopping the leak is good, but at the expense of building up sludge in the engine and tranny is not really a good one.

Lexmex

I think mid-year was the last time I did this, I remember doing a drain and fill and looking at the tranny pan. Like last time, just a small accumulation on the magnets. Right now I am at 114k miles, and I believe this is about after 7,000 miles.