2200 automatic, oil everywhere!

herbie

Member
Hello all,

Using the P6 regularly as always and drove out this afternoon and it had left a huge puddle of gearbox oil, it has always had a slight leak but not this much. Can’t see anything obvious, leaking from torque converter maybe?
 
Does the car still start and run? if so it's probably the front pump seal leaking, if not it's possibly the flexplate has broken and damaged the converter. Check the easy things first though, such as the cooler pipes etc.
 
If it does run then ideally powerwash it all then run it to identify the source of the leak. Another common leak is the sump cracking around the dipstick tube fitting in the sump.
 
Thanks for your reply Harvey, runs fine and changes gear beautifully still, there is some oil left and I followed your excellent guide for topping up, I will check it on ramps tomorrow.
 
Mine has a "seep" from where the dipstick goes into the 'box. Mark Grey had a look and said there wasn't anything that could be done as it's a strange connection and cannot be repaired reliably enough to stop it leaking (he gave a much better description than that but I can't remember it!). It seems all I can do it check the gearbox oil level every so often... At least he fixed the engine oil leak, poorly fitted gaskets...
 
As Harvey said; try the easy things first:

I would check that the leak isn't from the sump gasket. I had the same problems with mine & after (a lot) of faffing about have managed to get to a reasonably leak-free position. Hazel

I tried a rubber gasket, but went back to a cork one. It's a case of not over-tightening & I'm told that shakeproof washers are better than the spring washers on the sump bolts for this reason. Hazel
 
Mine has a "seep" from where the dipstick goes into the 'box. Mark Grey had a look and said there wasn't anything that could be done as it's a strange connection and cannot be repaired reliably enough to stop it leaking (he gave a much better description than that but I can't remember it!). It seems all I can do it check the gearbox oil level every so often...

The fitting inside the sump often cracks away from the sump itself, causing a leak. This is normally because the bottom fitting has been tightened, and then the top of the tube has been pulled across to get the top mount fitted, leaving the whole thing in tension. You cant get all the way around the fitting inside the sump to weld it, so ISTR we used to thoroughly clean around it, and then smear the join with Araldite. Also sometimes the dipstick fitting would bottom out on the sump before clamping the tube, so we used to make up a small ring/gasket to go in first.
 
I have gunk spray and ramps so hopefully got to trot on Sunday.

It is a lot of fluid so hopefully will be quite visible.
 
The fitting inside the sump often cracks away from the sump itself, causing a leak. This is normally because the bottom fitting has been tightened, and then the top of the tube has been pulled across to get the top mount fitted, leaving the whole thing in tension. You cant get all the way around the fitting inside the sump to weld it, so ISTR we used to thoroughly clean around it, and then smear the join with Araldite. Also sometimes the dipstick fitting would bottom out on the sump before clamping the tube, so we used to make up a small ring/gasket to go in first.

My BW 35 developed a leak about 20 years ago. I took it to the local mechanic who was also an auto transmission specialist. He found the oil pan to be cracked due to over tightening. He tig welded it up and said if it happened again to get a new oil pan.

He also has serviced the transmission a few times over the years. The seal conditioner stuff that he used last time seemed to work. The oil porosity is greatly reduced, in a car that sits and hardly gets used, and then gets run for a few weeks then sits again for a year or two.
 
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