Transmission oil leak?

Calling all Mazda Gurus out there! After replacing the busted struts and shocks at 77k miles, my mechanic found another problem. With the truck lifted up, we saw there are oil splashs around the transmission and driveshaft area. He called his parts supplier and ask for a replacement part, but that dude said I have to replace the whole driveshaft?!!(freak) My mechanic said he'll ask around so I want to get some insights from my fellow 9'ers too.

By the way, do you think is this also the reason why I feel "Mild trailer-hitching sensation" once in a while?

The red circle is the place where he found leakage. It's right between the transmission and the driveshaft. The red stars are the oil splashes found. The bottom of each pic is the front of the truck. If any of you knows which part I should replace, please do let me know and I appreciate it very much! *part number would be nice too!

Jon

almost 50 views and no one knows? :-\

Oil Leak

Not familiar with that area of the vehicle, but I see no sign of a leakage source in the area. It makes me wonder if someone was careless with an oil refill or something, and what you're seeing is runoff that hit the shaft and got thrown everywhere. Also, it seems from the shots that what we're seeing thrown around inside looks dry, and the only fresh oil is on the round cross-member. ( ? ) Just a thought.

I agree with drchuck.
"oil splashs" does not mean there is a leak.
From the pics, I don't see any leak source at all.

Jon,

Saw your post from the other thread about 'current mileage on your vehicle' and just wanted to let you know that I actually have a somewhat similar issue, but my 'leak' seems to be coming from the front transfer/transaxle case. During the 1st year with the 9, I hit something on the highway that the person in front of me had just hit and I had little time to react to. This was the oddest thing I've ever seen on the highway - it was about the size of a bowling ball, but not completely round and when I hit it, I knew it must have damaged something. I checked under the car when I reached my destination, but didn't see anything unusual.

At my next oil change, the technician comes out and tells me he needs to show me something. On the transfer case there was a dent on the lip where a cover attaches to the case with a red gasket in-between. He then showed me the 'splash' of oil on the outside of the case and the drip of red tranny fluid right at that dent. He said it was minor, but if I wanted to fix it, it might mean a fairly expensive job since both the cover and the case were slightly dented. This happened to be a Ford dealership that I was at (I used to bring my M1 oil and filter to them and let them deal with the oil change). I decided to bring the 9 to my local Mazda dealership for its' next oil change and asked them to check out that issue. They came back and said that they saw the dent, but that no fluid appeared to be leaking. Since then, I continue to check it myself. I know it's still leaking because I clean off the transfer case each time I change the oil (I now change it myself) and it gets oily by the time the next change is due. I have no oil on my engine oil case. Since I've never seen a drop in the actual tranny fluid level, and this originally occurred over 60K miles ago, I try not to think (stress) about it. Obviously, your situation isn't the same, but if you've determined which oil this is, and you're not seeing a significant change in your levels over time, and no oil spots on your driveway or garage, this may be something that isn't worth repairing.

Have you cleaned up the oily residue to see if it returns? That's what I did. During my oil changes, I grab a couple of rags - 1 has some 'Purple Stuff' on it, and I spend a minute or two cleaning it up as best that I can. Mine keeps coming back, but I don't think I've seen an oil spot in my garage. So, I look at like this; as long as it doesn't get worse, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I'm sure you've heard of cars that 'burn 1/2 qt of oil' between oil changes. Yeah, it would be nice if it didn't do that, but is it worth the cost of major engine repair to get it fixed?
So, my suggestion would be to take a 'wait and see' attitude towards it. And if you haven't already cleaned it up to see if it returns, do that. And verify which fluid might be leaking.....and then just keep an eye on it / check the levels periodically.

On your trailer-hitching issue. Several of us experienced that issue, which was linked to a bad spark plug(s). If you replaced your plugs and it's still occurring, then I suppose it could be a coil pack. Or, since you said it occurred when you 'stomp' on the pedal - I'm wondering if this is just normal down-shifting of the tranny that you're sensing...? I know when I'm going up a steep hill with the cruise control engaged and the car starts to lose speed, it down-shifts from 6th to 4th - which throws my head against the seat/headrest and the engine screams for a few seconds until it gets up to speed again. I hate it when it does that - I've never had a car's cruise control act so drastically to try to maintain speed, but I guess I have to live with it.

One other thing - which I hope I'm way off here... do you trust the mechanic / dealership that replaced your plugs? The front 3 are easy to replace, but the rear 3 are kind of a b!tch to get to. Take a look at your receipt - you should have been charged for a set of manifold gaskets along with the plugs. If those gaskets weren't replaced, that isn't a good sign. Again, I'm just wondering if the mechanic may have skipped replacing the back 3 plugs or didn't replace the gaskets, which are supposed to be replaced when those back plugs are changed. Again, I would hope they did it correctly, but I tend to be a cynic.
Good luck with it!

Hey bud,

Thanks for your thorough response. Yea, it's a good suggestion to clean up the splash area to see if it will come back. I trust my mechanic because he actually would suggest not to replace / repair every little thing. Unlike the stealerships who try their best to drain your wallet.

When I replaced my spark plugs, he gave me back 6 of the old ones...

The 9 has 95k miles at the clock now, and it's still running smoothly. Has been using M1 5w20 and M1 oil filters every 5k miles. Hopefully this truck can last as we put lots of miles a year. I just bought half a dozen of cabin filters and 4 engine filters at http://www.rockauto.com/. This place has the best deal for every car parts you can find! (nana)

However,there's one thing I have noticed recently. When the 9 is cruising at (say 60mph at 6th gear) on the highway and I tried to pass someone, the truck does not respond as quickly as it used to. It doesn't down shift even when the pedal is pressed half way. I almost have to floor it then it will jump to 3rd and take off. Wonder if this is due to its age or just another transmission programming?

Enjoy your ride in the meantime.

Crystalwhitey said:

Hey bud,

Thanks for your thorough response. Yea, it's a good suggestion to clean up the splash area to see if it will come back. I trust my mechanic because he actually would suggest not to replace / repair every little thing. Unlike the stealerships who try their best to drain your wallet.

When I replaced my spark plugs, he gave me back 6 of the old ones...

The 9 has 95k miles at the clock now, and it's still running smoothly. Has been using M1 5w20 and M1 oil filters every 5k miles. Hopefully this truck can last as we put lots of miles a year. I just bought half a dozen of cabin filters and 4 engine filters at http://www.rockauto.com/. This place has the best deal for every car parts you can find! (nana)

However,there's one thing I have noticed recently. When the 9 is cruising at (say 60mph at 6th gear) on the highway and I tried to pass someone, the truck does not respond as quickly as it used to. It doesn't down shift even when the pedal is pressed half way. I almost have to floor it then it will jump to 3rd and take off. Wonder if this is due to its age or just another transmission programming?

Enjoy your ride in the meantime.

Click to expand...

I don't know if you've done the transmission flush or not, but since having mine flushed last month, it does seem to be shifting smoother - specifically, I haven't noticed the 'jolt' when it down-shifts to accelerate, which is what it would do when going up hills in cruise control. I know it's not exactly what you're experiencing but wonder if the tranny service would help...?