I have a leak, picture attached. My searches for oil leaks came up with so many problem areas I have become concerned this may be the first of many. less than 50k miles on the car, I noticed some dirty wet mess on the bottom of the transmission last week, cleaned it up and now see a slow leak though I can't determine the source. I thought it might be from the passenger axle seal but there appears to be some oil forward of this on the trans.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Bottom of the tranny is most likely oil housing leak. Common, not terribly aggressive. Could also be some seepage from the valve cover. Try tracing the source of the leak to its origin (up against gravity), by tracing a paper towel upwards until oil residue stops showing up.

Right around 50-60K miles two common oil leaks develop: oil filter housing, and turbo oil cooler line (google for pics). Both require removal of the heat shields to R&R, so consider doing both if you are DIY-ing or paying someone else to tackle the job.

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Clean all areas then we can get a better ideal where's the source of the leak. I'm betting on the oil filter housing gasket.

 

I replaced the oil filter housing gasket and a few weeks later noticed a small spot of oil on the garage floor. I traced it to the vacuum pump. Thought it was the o-ring on the pump mount to the head, but it was the pump cover leaking and that o-ring is not available.

 

Looks like it could be an axle seal or something on the back of the motor. There isn't a whole lot to leak oil on the back of the motor so my first guess would be valve cover. It doesn't look like the oil is running from the front of the trans to the diff housing so I would bet it's not the turbo oil lines or oil filter housing which are common leak points.