Transmission Pan Leak

[austin]

Hello,
I have a 2006 chevy cobalt ls 2.2L, i have a sealed trans that i dont believe has ever been serviced for its life of 175k miles. I noticed the transmission pan has a slow leak/drip to it. My natural thought is “oh the trans pan is leaking i’ll just drain the pan and replace the gasket correcting the leak and while im at it i might as well get a new filter for it as well. every one i tell this to warn me not to touch it and that if i do it will have problems. should i replace the gasket? should i add a little fluid to it and just have it leak on my driveway? is there something i can add to it like a stop leak? what is the best course of action? thank you

 

[YelloEye]

With high mileage automatic transmissions there is sometimes a fear of when you add the new fluid in that the transmission won't work properly again due to the amount of metal that used to be floating in the old fluid and is now absent in the new fluid if the transmission had "hard part" damage. You should check what your fluid looks like to determine the condition of the transmission, if it's dark, burnt smelling, and you see little flakes or specks in it then you might be dealing with a damaged transmission.

If however your fluid looks and smells normal you can most likely safely drain the fluid and replace the pan seal and filter since you have it open. I would do a fluid flush with the old stuff in there, running the motor with one of the transmission lines draining into a bucket and then filling through the dipstick until you have clean fluid draining into the bucket, then let it finish pushing fluid out before dropping the pan. This will clean out the torque converter and transmission of old fluid.

If you are worried about it I'd visit a transmission shop and see what course of action they'd take with that transmission. They do this for a living after all.

 

[austin]

With high mileage automatic transmissions there is sometimes a fear of when you add the new fluid in that the transmission won't work properly again due to the amount of metal that used to be floating in the old fluid and is now absent in the new fluid if the transmission had "hard part" damage. You should check what your fluid looks like to determine the condition of the transmission, if it's dark, burnt smelling, and you see little flakes or specks in it then you might be dealing with a damaged transmission.

If however your fluid looks and smells normal you can most likely safely drain the fluid and replace the pan seal and filter since you have it open. I would do a fluid flush with the old stuff in there, running the motor with one of the transmission lines draining into a bucket and then filling through the dipstick until you have clean fluid draining into the bucket, then let it finish pushing fluid out before dropping the pan. This will clean out the torque converter and transmission of old fluid.

If you are worried about it I'd visit a transmission shop and see what course of action they'd take with that transmission. They do this for a living after all.

is there anything i can do without removing the pan? what are your thoughts on using a stopleak?

 

[YelloEye]

Stopleak adds little particles to the oil, little particles that can clog up transmission lines and valves. While it might work, I stay away from the stuff and prefer to fix things the right way instead of prolonging the inevitable and possibly damaging them.