93 ford escort leaking trasmission fluid from behind dash

I have a 93 ford escort that is driping transmission fluid directly onto my feet. It seems to be coming from two places along the air vent that runs from the center of the car to the driver side defrost vent. it is definitely red in color and smells a,d feels like trans oil. any ideas what could be causing it?

Do you have a speedometer cable on this model? If you do, automatic transmission fluid is probably getting drawn up to the speedometer head and dripping from the fitting. There is a seal in the cable drive adapter at the transmission that should stop fluid from getting into the cable.

Hope that is it.

Great advice. The only time I’ve ever seen transmission fluid dripping from under the dash was with a bad speedometer cable.

Alternate possibility: Has anyone ever put dye in the AC system? (I think that 93 was R-12.)

Those dyes are usually green or orange.

The ones that I saw/used in the R-12 days were red, but I can’t answer for “usually.” In any event I do consider this to be only a long-shot possibility. The transmission fluid guess is a better one, but I wanted to point out this chance too.

The cable is certainly plausible and I would add that I’ve seen red refrigerant dye also.

Thanks everybody, I will definitely check it out this weekend.