Oil Leak

[Raptor]

I actually would drive up to Blaine if you wanted and we could check it out. Monday or Tuesday would be best, but any other day would work as well.

[Enes]

Thank you Mike for checking it out and a nice talk about stuff :) always a pleasure talking to you!!!

Well we ended up taking the inspection shield off and it looked clean in there no oil deposits or anything.. Mike checked out himself with the "remote eye" and the seal was in place and dry..

then i drained engine oil and there was plenty of it... then i drained out the trany oil and there was barely two quarts ...

soo the conclusion..


driver side axle seal



:razz2:

[Raptor]

No problem Enes, it was fun as always hanging out for a while and chatting.

[AJ]

Glad you got it figured out Enes!

[Enes]

unfortunately... there is a bad thing in figuring this out..

Ended up draining the trany oil... Mike remember how i asked you about the shiny stuff??? guess what it wasn't reflection.. Chunk galore!!!! well i measured how much transmision oil there was.. 1 1/2 qt of oil..
I also measured engine oil.. 4 qts ..... plus when i let some engine oil get on the floor next to the other oil that leaked out.. there was a huge difference that should of explained it to me as well.. black compared to goldish..

Soo there was no engine oil it was trany oil.. and it was only leaking when i would take right hand turns which would explain the driver side axle..

one picture and click on >> to see next one (http://www.enesg.com/gallery/eclipse/IMG_2640)

[Raptor]

Did you get some better fluid in there? I am not at all a fan of GM Synchromesh. Not that it had anything to do with the metallic chunk collection in the fluid, but definately worth changing. There is really no question as to where the leak was. The drivers axle seal is definately the culprit. Not sure what I would suggest you do about the metal collection in the fluid. Maybe after the new seal are in and the fluid is changed, check it again in a week or so and see how it looks. Maybe some of that is from all the trouble they had getting the axle in on the passenger side and issues with that retaining clip. If there is a new collection of particles in the fluid at that point, maybe have someone who knows trannies better check it out and give you some options. I don't think it would be good to assume disaster and pull it for rebuild right away. Maybe someone with some more tranny building experience can chime in on this and help out with some useful advice.

[Kracka]

I am bringing him some Redline tranny fluid on Friday...

[Enes]

My trany got overheated most likely and from my limited knowlede...from what i know about metals is that i'm screwed.

Once metal starts flaking it means that it has been heated up above designed temperature and its starting to flake..which means the tensile strenghth of the metal has changed and has become softer.

Which means that it will work for some more time but it will start wearing out more rapidly.. until the gears are rounded out completely..


am i right?

-Enes

[Enes]

New thicker oil will not help me most likely... once metal is heated up and cooled off the properties of it change.. just like you don't want to cut simple springs because heat will change property of its tensilnes...

can you imagine what heat does to gears that are made to take a lot of rpms and traction?

-E

[Raptor]

Actually, I doubt if that will be the case. 20 years of metal work and there are a few things I know. Metal that is sitting in fluid or at least continually bathed in fluid will not get hot enough to change it's temper usually with the exception of bearings. It takes heating steal to a color of at least dull red then slow cooling it to remove temper. It really depends on what the material is that was in the fluid. If it is magnetic, it could be gear material or bearing material. If not, it could be case or synchro material. Really depends on where it is coming from as to how bad of a problem this is. With it being a manual tranny, I would expect the particles are coming from metal to metal grinding somewhere rather than metal fatigue.