Advice needed.

[Legnum Boy]

Hi All, me again.

I know it only seems like I post when I have a problem, but I am a busy person with my fingers in a lot of pies.

Just had MOT at local station, (not repair garage, so very impartial ), passed with flying colours but warned there was a big oil leak from somewhere.

Thought to myself, must get that fixed and then forgot about it.. :rolleyes5

Pulled up outside my house the next morning after a moderate blast up the A1M and noticed puddles of oil on road where I had driven in.. Uh oh...

Been to my local Mitsu today and the guy checked the ATF dipstick. Bit low considering the thing was filled up 1500 miles ago, but they dont do auto boxes.
He gave me the phone number for the people they contract the work out to and I rang them directly.

'Can't look at it til Saturday, and DON'T DRIVE IT AT ALL TIL THEN, those transmissions are about £9000 to replace'

Is this for real, or is this guy trying to pull certain wool over unknowledgeble persons eyes (ie me...), and end up conning me into a rip off purchase?

Surely, if the leaking of the oil was that bad a threat to my pocket, the friendly and trusted guy at mitsu would have warned me there and then?

[BraindG]

check out the gearbox/transmissions forum.. there have been a few cases of this

petrolhead, lisa/anthony had a similair problem..
believe it was a rubber seal for lisa/anthony, and some plunger for petrolhead..

but have a look in that forum.. remember to change the display options to "beginning" then hit showthreads..

[borgan]

Try Ivan Autos - 01707 646542. Only in Cranborne Ind. Estate in Potters Bar, not too far away from you

[Legnum Boy]

Thanks for the prompt replies guys, as always... and cheers for the info Borgan, that is closer than the Watford garage I was gunna go to. Will check them out tomorrow.

Does anyone think it really unwise to use the car until I get it seen, even if I don't rally it everywhere like I usual would? (since my recent brake upgrade, the mpg really fell through the floor, must be real heavy disc's and pads, me thinks... :$ )

Since the mass leak the other day, I have gone real easy and it doesn't look like anymore has leaked out.

[Nick Mann]

Lots of fluids to leak - I would say minimum easy driving and get it sorted very soon. If something has no oil and you are driving it, it will wear at a phenomenal rate, even if it doesn't seize. Take it easy on the car, and I hope it is sorted soon.

[Kieran]

Derek (Interlec) had a holiday trip sometime last year, punctuated with stops to top up the ATF. He poured it in through the dipstick hole and it kept going with no apparent side effects.

I would say that provided you don't boot it, and check/top up the ATF very regularly, ie every journey or once an hour, you should be able to wing it until it can be sorted...

[Roadrunner]

Yep, I agree. These boxes are very susceptible to having the fluid at the right level. If yours was running very low, I expect you'll have experienced some degradation in gearbox performance (slow downchanges, revving between upchanges, etc.). Top it up and it'll be fine, but you need to get it fixed. It's likely to be the torque converter seal which, itself, is cheap at around a tenner, but the box needs to come out to replace it which is where it starts to get expensive.

Best of luck,
Brian