My’97 Lincoln has developed a non pressure transmission fluid leak. It shows up on the street, but I measure it with the car sitting for a week and it amounted to about 2 teaspoons but the dipstick still shows “do not add”. When it gets to the “add” point on the dipstick, how much transmission fluid would that be?
About half a quart.
I agree.
It’s going down now so very slowly but a little transmission fluid on the street looks like a lot. Thanks for the answers because this is such a simple question but I couldn’t find a specific answer using a google search. I’m thinking of adding some Lucas Transmission Fix and keep an eye on it. Like the proverbial little old lady (which I am not) I’ll likely only be driving this car a thousand miles a year so it will take me years just to get where the average driver would put on in just one year.
The amount is not important that is why it has a dipstick.
That drip can be as simple as a loose couple of screws holding on the pan under the trans. You might consider paying to have it put on a lift and take a peek underneath.
Checking the fluid level in an automatic transmission can be a real PIA. If after driving half an hour the fluid is anywhere in the cross hatch area the transmission is full. And it is preferable if the level is at the lower end of the cross hatch area. Only when the fluid is below the cross hatch when HOT should fluid be added. Of course instead of a cross hatch area some dip sticks have 2 drilled holes or two dimples and in those cases consider the area between them as cross hatch.
When I first noticed the leak under the car, the spot on the street where there had been nothing, after seeing it was red I first suspected the transmission fluid level (duh!) and checked it hot after having it run for a half an hour and it was near the top of the checkered area. So I check the power steering fluid and it was full (still is). I moved the car to where there was no spot on the street and didn’t drive it for a week and there was a spot again. So I warmed up the car and checked the fluid hot again it had dropped but was still within the checkered area. Then I put a container under the car to measure how much fluid was lost after a week and it was a couple of teaspoons, but still withing the checkered area on the dipstick, so although I have lost transmission fluid I apparently cannot add any either.
So If I take this in to get it put on a hoist to get a look (I have no jack stands and can barely get much more than my arm under the car) should I take it to a transmission shop or to the general shop that I know has done work on it?
It doesn’t matter what type of shop you take it to as long as they’re competent and honest. Most leaks are fairly easy to fix unless it’s a front pump seal (torque converter) and that would require removal of the transmission.
It does not hurt anything to overfill them a bit; within reason of course. Consider the additional fluid as insurance… 
I’m not a huge fan of the chain type transmission shops but my opinion is also subjective. It’s due to seeing customers who were hit hard financially over what was a minor problem. It was not necessarily due to being crooked; it was more horribly inept diagnosis than anything else.
A side story from when I lived in CA. I knew 2 guys who ran a small transmission shop under a chain name. One of them did the R & R work (remove and replace in the car) and the other did the actual transmission rebuilds.
The guy who did the R & R was hooked on amphetamines and had the metabolism of a hummingbird. He could rip transmissions in and out of a car in a heartbeat.
The guy who rebuilt them was a barbituate addict and “mellow” was an understatement. Needless to say, the transmissions often piled up as overhauling them was like watching a slo-mo film…
For a few days every week or so he would come out of the fog and catch things up.
If it is something simple then the shop that had done work on the car before and I’ve heard testimonies from the previous owner and others that they are honest, then they should be able to spot it. I’m leery of transmissions shops that may also be needing to make boat payments and so find big things wrong with a transmission.
I don’t need the car–I don’t need any car and until I bought this one 3 months ago I got along nicely without one for a year and a half without the constant “what’s going to go wrong next” worries and it was nice. Since I am poor and retired I don’t need a hole in the street into which to pour money, but since this car only cost $600 and belonged to a neighbor it was worth the gamble, but major transmission repairs is not on the list (I have read that these old Lincolns have very solid transmissions that will likely outlast the car so I’m hoping that is true).
Fpr 600 bucks you got a steal. The transmissions do hold up well but regular filter and fluid changes about every 30k miles can assure that.
ok4450 wrote: “For 600 bucks you got a steal. The transmissions do hold up well but regular filter and fluid changes about every 30k miles can assure that.”
Yes, I did get a steal. The guy was told he had too many vehicles in our mobile home park so he sold all of them and then bought a van. I had talked with his sister first with no intentions of ever buying a car and she said he offered it to her for $600 but she didn’t need another car. He had it on CraigsList for $1200 but he was getting people who wanted a cheap car and were asking if they could pay half now and half later or if he could leave the plates on for awhile (really stupid). It was a Sunday and I told him I would give him the $600 right then and he said “sold”. In the first 2 months I owned it the car did not leak a drop of anything until now and it happened while the car was just setting since I only drive it about 1 day a week. This is exactly what I do not miss about owning a car–the what’s going to go wrong next. Yes, I got a steal but I wish now I had never bought it when I don’t really need a car.
If you don’t really need it then I would suggest detailing it out and trying to flip it for a profit. Advertise it somewhere other than Craigslist.
If the car is half decent then I don’t know what those CL bottom feeders are expecting. Even 1200 is a whale of buy on the car if in half decent shape.
A leak is actually nothing to be concerned about. It’s 15+ years old and leaks can be considered normal. It’s no different than a 15 year old faucet or toilet in the house developing a leak.
ok4450 wrote: “A leak is actually nothing to be concerned about. It’s 15+ years old and leaks can be considered normal. It’s no different than a 15 year old faucet or toilet in the house developing a leak.”
Yes, I think that’s true especially since it is a small leak and not a puddle and a non pressure leak. I want to put in a bottle of the Lucas Transmission Fix and keep an eye on it because at the end of the year I was going to take it to the shop where it has been taken for an oil change and have them check it all out then (likely only another 400 miles of never driving the car for more than 15-20 minutes at a time). If I put 1000 miles a year on this car it would be a lot and currently at age 63 and with 182,000 miles on it I might never reach 200,000.
My selling dilemma: I have a 24 year old daughter who has her eyes on this car if I were to sell it (to haul her drums which she doesn’t have yet, or again). The problem is that in the last 5 years she has totaled the 3 cars she has owned. I am reluctant of providing her with the means of killing or hurting someone else or herself so I might have to keep the car until she gets another on her own. For me not owning a vehicle and with the expense and headaches that go with that meshes well with my simple retired lifestyle–it’s psychological.
Be careful: with low mileage you need to use the monthly maintenance schedule, not the one for mileage. For example, if you are required to change the oil every 5000 miles or 5 months, the 5 months would apply.
Transmission fluid interval of 30k miles would translate to 30 months or 2.5 years.
I don’t have an answer for the daughter problem but wiping out 3 cars in 5 years is a real cause for concern; especially if they were all due to her and did not involve negligence of some sort on someone else’s part.
ok4450 wrote: "I don’t have an answer for the daughter problem but wiping out 3 cars in 5 years is a real cause for concern; especially if they were all due to her and did not involve negligence of some sort on someone else’s part. "
Well she never got tickets but at her age the insurance companies always consider any accidents she has to be her fault. She doesn’t have a good track record though (distractions: radio, smoking; wearing flip flops while driving) and a car costs a lot of money which she doesn’t really have and she doesn’t need a car anymore than I do.
Bill Russell wrote: "Be careful: with low mileage you need to use the monthly maintenance schedule, not the one for mileage. For example, if you are required to change the oil every 5000 miles or 5 months, the 5 months would apply.
Transmission fluid interval of 30k miles would translate to 30 months or 2.5 years."
Having paid only $600 for the car and not needing a vehicle my goal as a retired senior living under the federal poverty level on Social Security is to spend as little as possible on the car without overtly abusing it and then dumping it for however much or little I can get for it.
Making it 3 years would be as much as I would ask of it without major repairs. With major repairs it is gone pronto. A minor transmission fluid leak is one thing, anything major and it is toast.
{f you don’t need or even particularly want a car, sell it. Why complicate your life ? An occasional cab ride or rental is probably cheaper than insurance. Don’t tell your daughter you are selling the car. Tell her you sold it and that you didn’t want to sell her a car with a leaking transmission.
oldtimer 11 wrote: “Tell her you sold it and that you didn’t want to sell her a car with a leaking transmission.” This is my point entirely because selling her a car with any problems will become my problem which is worse than if it were just my problem to begin with.
Yes for a year and a half and including one of the coldest Wisconsin winters on record I got by without a car never taking a taxi or even using a bus (I since found out that the buses run free the first Monday of the month in my city so I used them a few times last winter to buy groceries). I didn’t need the car, I just couldn’t pass up the good deal. Yes, and even though insurance only costs me a dollar a day if I only need to drive the car 1 day a week I’m starting at $7 plus gas, so it’s not that great a deal. But no matter what I figured I could always at least get back what I paid for the car.