I recently accidentally overfilled my transmission fluid. Everything was fine while the engine was lukewarm, but once the transmission fluid heated up, it overflowed the dipstick tube and the transmission stopped working. After realizing what had happened, I changed the transmission fluid and filter, and filled the pan conservatively.

However, now I have a considerable leak that's particularly obvious when I put it in reverse. The leak isn't from the transmission pan, but (what I believe to be) from where the transmission mounts to the engine. I've attached a photo below with the leak area circled.

When I put it in reverse this morning, the engine revved up, but the truck didn't want to go anywhere. I let the RPMs go down and tried again, and it moved okay. So I stopped at the end of my driveway, and looked under the truck - transmission fluid was pouring out of the circled area above - within probably a minute, I had a 1.5' diameter circle of transmission fluid on my driveway.

Does this mean that the overfull fluid was enough to blow a gasket between the tranny and engine? If so, I assume I'll need to replace the gasket?

If I have to replace the gasket, is there anything else I should do/check/replace while I'm there? The check-engine light was on, and I had three error codes that all had to do with the shift solenoids (I think P0756 was one of them.) I cleared the codes, and they haven't come back, so I don't know if the solenoids need to be replaced, or if they were just in error because the transmission had poured all it's fluid out and the transmission/solenoids had very little fluid to work with.

If it makes any difference, this situation was a problem in the first place because it occasionally didn't want to shift from 1-2. It would sometimes go all the way to the redline (if I let it) without shifting. Usually if I let off the throttle and tried again (or sometimes two more times) it would eventually shift. This wasn't always a problem, but it seemed to be increasing, which is why I thought it needed fluid in the first place. (Apparently the fluid level had been okay, but the engine wasn't as hot as I thought in the first place, so it looked low, and I overfilled it.)

Thoughts?

Thanks,
~Dean

 

Probably the seal between the torque converter, and the trans. Gotta drop the trans to change it. And yeah, overfilling is indeed what likely did it in. Will the trans still work afterwards? Good question.

 

Looks like the front seal in the transmission blew out.

 

Okay, so if I have to drop the transmission to replace the seal, what can I do to address the first problem I had with it occasionally not wanting to shift from 1-2? Would that be the torque converter? Or a solenoid? Are there good ways to test the converter or solenoids, rather than blindly replacing parts?

 

(Bump.)

Any thoughts as to what may cause the transmission to not want to shift from 1-2? While I have the transmission out, is there any way to test the torque converter or solenoids?

Thanks again!

 

Have a browse thru MonteC's tranny thread. This is probably addressed in there.... Lotta pages to go thru though...

As for testing the solenoids.... while the trans is out, if they are determined to be the probably cause of the problem, just replace them. Testing them cold is vaguely meaningless. (unless of course, they fail..... )