Manual Transmission Leaks
 

I have a '10 Fit Sport w/ a manual trans. and 10,000 miles. I went under the front end recently to change the oil, and found oil and dirt stuck to the bottom of the trans.. It was obvious that the lube in the trans. has been leaking for some time. I cleaned the hole area and dried it, and within minutes there was fresh lube beginning to leak out of the joint where the two halves of the trans. are put together.
I have searched this site and can't find where anyone else is complaining of this issue. Has anyone heard of trans. leaks?
Man, do I not want to take this thing in and let those hack mechanics at the dealer rip it apart, but I see no option. I am a pretty good mechanic myself and I see only two ways for them to fix it. One, pull the trans., split it and reseal it. And two, pull the trans., and put in a new one. Rats!

Interested to see what happens, and in the morning i will be checking out the underside of my car...

Post any updates/struggles

Any updates? Last week I was doing and oil change and noticed the same thing on my 08 AT Fit. Leaking fluid at the bottom where the engine and transaxle mate. I'm hoping the 5 year 60k powertrain warranty will cover this issue.

Interesting that you asked. For the last three months since I noticed the leak, I have been too busy to address it. I did pull the front wheel and go in and check the fluid level to make sure I wasn't running low. Then just last week I stopped in and talked to the Dealer. I begged and pleaded that they let me try an external repair before they have to rip my car to pieces. They examined my car and seen the leak and agreed to my plan. Just now, I crawled out from under the car, and I will have to wait for a couple days for the sealant that I used to dry and firm up before I will refill the trans with fluid, then drive it. It will take perhaps a few weeks to confirm whether the repair was successful. Even then I will have to monitor it for the rest of the car's life.
I will tell you this though, I found all of the bolts that hold the halves of the trans together were not very tight, almost to the point of being loose. I did apply a reasonable amount of torque to them ( the ones I could reach ) and the leak did noticeably slow down.
I will update you as soon as I can.

well, it's preety obvious that if you dont put the bolts of the trans securely with sufficient torque, they will leak oil... i'm glad that none of the bolts have actually fall off the car... if i were you, i'd recheck all the bolts and tighten them with torque specs before i try anything like resealing the outer case with sealant. sealant will only block the outer gap, not fill in the gap. i'm not an expert or mechanic, but it sound like not a good idea putting sealants on your engine...

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAAA :rotfl:

that is funny.:rotfl:

Thanks for the update. Would it be possible to post a photo of where you're seeing this leak exactly? I plan to get under my car this weekend and see where my leak is originating from. I'll be checking the tightness of the bolts on my trans as well. BTW I currently have 54K on my odometer.

Drag0na5h, unfortunately you seem to have an AT and my car is a MT, so I doubt that the leaks even close to being in the same area. I have finished the repair and just drove the car about 100 miles, and so far so good. It really sucks to have to do this to a new car, but if it works, it will be far better than having had the thing torn apart and put back together. Imagine all of the possible things a mechanic could mess up or forget to connect or tighten, which could trigger an endless number of return trips to the dealer. My repair procedure was quite involved, and required some time, equipment and patience. I will gladly share it with anyone who's interested, but I guess I need to give it time to prove that it is going to hold before I waste mine or anyone else's time.

Thanks for your input. I actually went under my car this past weekend and found my leak was coming from a worn o-ring around the selector lever shaft coming out of the transmission. I plan on taking it into Honda to see if this is covered under my 60K powertrain warranty.

OK, I have what I seem to think are some results from the "repair" on my trans leak. After several months and several thousand miles, I am very happy to report that there is absolutely no sign of any oil leaking from the trans. Of course the repair involved putting sealant ( Loctite and Yamabond ) on the exterior surface of the housing, so it could some day loose it's grip and begin to leak, but I will just keep an eye on it. As I stated in one of my previous posts, the repair procedure that I developed was quite involved, and I took my time to give it the best chance of success. I really feel that I will never have any more leaks from this area. I will be making a point of visiting my dealer and showing them the results and explain how I went about the repair. I know that they would probably never be authorized to do it my way, but I can guaranty that it was faster and easier than ripping the car apart, and I believe whole heartedly, a lot less risky. I will update this forum if there is any new developments, but for now I couldn't be happier except if the darn thing had never leaked.