After replacing my transmission output shaft seal, it turns out the 1 qt of ATF +4 that I had wasn't enough to refill my transmission. So I went to the dealer to grab another quarter. Well, when I got home I noticed the bottle looks like it's had something spill on it. You can see the colors running on the front and back label.





Now my first thought is that it's sealed and the fluid can't get it, so even though it obviously got wet with something, nothing should be able to get in either. However, I'm really second guessing putting this in my transmission. I don't want to take a chance at ruining this $3k transmission with a $7 bottle of fluid. What are your thoughts? Would you use this, or just chalk this up to a loss and go buy another bottle?

 

If it's sealed, I'd use it. Some other bottle of ATF probably leaked on it in the case.

 

Shake the bottle around some and see if it drips. If it doesn't and the seal looks good, I'd use it.

 

+1

I see this happen a lot when I buy a jug of oil at the store. Seems like the ones I grab have oil on them...

 

Hell no!

But that's only because I would be using the 4 dollar carquest special from Advance.

 

If it's sealed, I wouldn't worry about it. Also, your gonna need more than 2 quarts of ATF to completely fill your transmission from empty.

 

Thanks. I didn't drain the transmission. I just pulled the transfer case off and pulled the transmission output shaft seal out and replaced it. This allowed a little over a quart to leak out. I thought a quart would do it, but it's right at the bottom line after adding a quart, so I wanted to add a little more.