Is it Transmission fluid, or Red antifreeze?

My car's been sitting for over a month now, and a few weeks ago a good stain on the driveway developed. I swabbed some of the fluid on the driveway and it's reddish in color, but I can't tell which fluid it is (i've got one of the newer Red antifreeze products cooling my engine). It appears to be coming from the transmission pan but I'm no expert. Furthermore, I believe my car's been consuming coolant (hence why it's parked) but with no visible leaks, so checking the overflow tank for a low level isn't exactly a reliable test. Ideally I'd like to check the trans fluid dipstick level but that requires me to start the car and move it off the incline of the driveway. I don't wanna do it though if having low trans fluid while idling can screw up the transmission. Suggestions?

 

If it's oily, its tranny fluid. If it tastes good, its rad-coolant.

Seriously dude, if you can move it off the driveway incline of its own
power, its not low enough on fluid to inflict damage.

Better yet, jack it up high enough to crawl under & do a visual inspection.
Dollars-to-donut-holes says you'll see very quickly the leak source.

Good luck.

 

Although the red antifreeze and transmission fluid may look similar transmission fluid has a very different smell to it. try comparing the sent of the tuff you found on the ground to the sent of antifreeze from the overflow tank and trans fluid off the dip stick.

 

Ahh.. I just solved my mystery leak which seems similar to yours. Like the guys above said, just stick your finger in it and see if its more of a watery like feel or a greasy oil like feel. Water is water, trans fluid is a lube so you should be able to tell. If you have a water leak, your car will over heat easily sooner or later.. careful of that bug. I've found 4 common spots a trans can leak if its trans fluid. Here is what I've done to stop my leaks and avoid future leaks.

1. From the metal lines that go into your radiator or separate transmission cooler
> used fluid safe teflon tape, reinstalled the in and out line fittings
2. Metal lines that go into the top passenger side of your trans
> same teflon tape, same reinstall
3. The dipstick hole, your dipstck seal could be old, worn and cracked. Mine did not leak in the garage, only while driving because other wise there just wasnt enough pressure to push the trans fluid up and out
4. The trans pan, lets just hope your's isnt bent
> Mine is in good shape, never bent, gasket is still good but I torqued down all of the bolts as they seemd a bit loose which was odd cause I've never had to touch it, wouldn't have even thought of it until a leak happened.
note: Someone told me about a vent hole that could become clogged but with the trans already installed and whatever hose thinger that is supposed to be hanging from the vent.. I'm screwed for that repair idea, unless I'm not looking in the proper place for the vent hole.

All in all, if you got a leak and your not into fixing these things yourself you might just get some quotes from a trans shop. I love working on my engine but seriously hate touching my trans. There is just not enough room to work under there and nothing seems to come easy. My lines are now home depot brass nipples with hose fittings going to the metal lines but they dont leak! One of them threatened to strip the threads in the radiator which was NOT fun. You dont even want to know what it took to do simple things like.. install a dipstick seal, replace the lines that the shop that installed my trans threw away... My best advice is to just find out where its leaking and if its a dip stick seal leak or a metal line leak, just pay someone else to go through the pain lol I think I'd do that if I had to start all over again.

 

Ok guys I compared the fluids closely, smelled them a bit and I'm pretty certain that's trans fluid leaking onto the driveway. It's not a big stain, but it ain't small either. So the next step for me is to figure out how much it has lost so I can add more and hopefully drive it to a shop if it's not a bad leak. Again, the car is on an incline and I doubt I'll get a good reading sitting like that without firing it up. Can I start it up if the fluid's too low or is that a no-no?

 

just put it in neutral and roll down the hill

 

whao man your freaking out about a small stain? you said its been setting for a month or so, well gaskets tend to leak if the car has been sitting for a while, if you start her up, and run her around the block 1 a week you can avoid that problem. also your transmission holds more than a couple of quarts of fluid, oil tends to spread so what seems to be a big leak really isnt that bad. as far as hurting your transmission just by starting it, you wont i work with ntb and get cars in all the time with no fuild on the transmission or the oil dip stick which uslly means you a quart low or more. not saying its good to have it that low. so i would say your safe just to start it ans so how much you have lost. listen to the post above i had a leak in my radiator trans lines and later im checking the other ones.

good luck

 

Ok i'll fire her up today and see what the deal is. I'm only starting it to get it on a level surface to measure fluid loss and adding more. If it's not leaking much while driving, I'll take her down to the shop and have 'em replace any gaskets or seals.

A few years ago I took my toyota beater to the store and the transmission crapped out on me - it completely locked up and would barely move past 2 mph. When I finally got home there was trans fluid on the driveway - wasn't too much either. I don't wanna take any chances with the GTA.

 

If she's been parked on an incline, there may just be some dribbles coming out of the driveshft yoke seal. And guessing the age of the car this is very possible. IF that is the case it is a relatively easy fix, not too expensive either. Don't let the "shop" try to get you to buy a new tranny.

 

At the risk of being redundant, I repeat:

Drive it to a level spot, elevate it enough to do a visual inspection --
unless it's just easier to post & type.

 

The trans and converter hold a combined 10 qts. of oil.

Remember this, if the car sets for a long time (week or more) the fluid drains back from the converter into the trans pan, when the fluid level is that high the dip stick seal could leak, the pan gasket could leak, the seal around the TV cable could leak ETC.

 

Thanks Don. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but hopefully this weekend. I wanna say the stain don't look like all of 10 or even 5 quarts of fluid have already leaked out, but there's a crevice between the slabs of concrete where the leak is disappearing, so for all I know it may all have leaked into the crevice and only LOOKS like a little bit on the concrete. All I can say is when I pull out the dipstick (without idling) it's still covered in fluid.

Isn't is just peachy though that in order to check if the fluid is too dangerously low to start the engine, you must START THE ENGINE?

 

Remember alot of times oil tends to spred, so you may not have lost as much as you think. and running the car for short periods of time with low fluid is not going to hurt anything

 

What he said^^^^^

 

i took off one day and all of a sudden the car stopped moving when i was only 2 blocks away, couldnt figure out what it was so me and my friend pushed it back home, when we were approaching the house i saw a HUGE puddle of red fluid filling the streat, and trailing off, turns out my hose connecting it to the radiator split, and all my fluid leaked out, it was soon after i got the car and my friends little brother wanted to sit in the drivers seat, i let him crank it and he stomped the gas, im guessing the pressure from that blew the hose.. little *******, didnt say he could do that, i put a new hose on and new fluid in the transmission, started up and drove off, didnt feel any different then it did before the fuild leaked out, i got lucky

anyways, my point is, as long as its not a puddle of fluid, its probably safe to start it up and move it where ever you need it

 

If your really that concerned about it you could always change your transmission fluid. Drain it all out and refil it to its specified capacity. That way when you refill it youll know roughly how much is in there. So that means there no worries of not having enough fluid if your that concerned about it.

 

Red fluid!!!!!!!! Your Camaro is bleeding!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with ....

 

Well I fired her up and pulled her into the garage. I added a quart of oil AND half a quart of Dexron III as they were both low. So far she runs fine and no major leakage but I will have to get the seals replaced around the transmission pan it seems.

BTW Don, I tried the Alum-a-seal stuff in the radiator but the coolant is still disappearing. I hope you got time for a quick peek of my cooling system.

 

Did you ever get a quote on that from your shop? Looking to have the same done to my car, and are wondering what's a ballpark figure for getting the gaskets replaced.

 

wwwyzzerdd , carefull when you use symbols in place of foul language. I got slammed for it.