I noticed pool of oil yesterday morning, felt engine oil has leaked. Did oil change as it was due, the mechanic said the leak doesn’t seem big enough, still overnight there was again lot of oil leaked, I kept a pan below to capture it. Checked it at auto shop near me and they said it is transmission fluid leak and probably due to driver side axle seal leak. I am going to take it again tomorrow to fix. How much do you think it will cost to fix if this is right diagnosis? This is 2005 4 cyl Ford escape with 150k on it. As per them if it is axle leak it will probably more of labor (2 hrs) than seal price. What else could have gone wrong?
No idea if this is the right diagnosis but if you think the place you took it to is decent, have it fixed. The seal is a $5-10 part. It is just that the wheel, hub, and axle shaft must be removed to access the seal and then reinstalled after the seal replacement. This is a job that involves a lot of labor. Just be glad it isn’t the main transmission seal as that requires the separation of the engine and transmission to service.
I believe this place is decent, heard some positive reviews of him, anyway need to rely on someone! I too hope it is not the main trans seal. This vehicle also has CEL on and believe it for fuel rail sensor…not yet checked how much that will cost. Can something for it be done by ourselves? On my other car for same thing I paid around $350 (at different location).
I’m surprised that the shop that is doing the repair did not at least give you a ball park estimate as to the cost for the seal replacement. They did say it’s a axle seal, so I presume they already ruled out the main seal.[quote=“detguy1, post:3, topic:94115”]
This vehicle also has CEL on and believe it for fuel rail sensor
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We really cannot help without the actual code that came up on this vehicle.
Yosemite
update: We replaced the Axle seal, but the leak did not stop, so replaced the shaft too, it is still leaking. but not too much now. The shop says we will have to replace the bushing and will cost around 500, since we have to take the transmission down to replace the internal bushing. Already down 400 doing above. Are there any alternatives? He says you can drive keeping an eye on trans fluid, but how long can you do that. The car has 150k miles on it and wondering will it ever get completely fixed (did brakes, CEL etc too).
Depending on how severe the leak is…you could drive this and just watch the fluid level for another 1000 miles or 100.000 miles.
What did you do to eliminate the CEL or did you just erase the code and hope it does not come back.
Yosemite
The new leak does not seem severe, its like 1/4 of earlier one, not that I measure the first one!!, may ride like that for few weeks to check out how bad it gets. I guess keeping a pan daily underneath will be a challenge to keep the garage clean. For CEL, I don’t remember the code but replaced the fuel rail sensor. Not sure if it was make or break to replace it, could have used that money to plug this leak. Thanks for the feedback.
That’s fine that it’s a quarter of what the leak was before…I’ll get out my crystal ball and try to figure out how big the old leak was???
Yosemite
Well, u have to follow basic repair steps.
Replace seal $
Replace axle $$
Drop trans and replace bushing $$$
Is bushing inside side cover?
Case must be split?
Suggest to fix the remaining leak(s). If you don’t it just creates a mess where you park it, and the leak can suddenly spring to life from a minor one to a major one without you realizing it. That will cost you a bunch to replace the transmission. So $$-wise and common sense wise, stick with it until all the leaks are addressed.
hmmm … thinking, what all can leak on a transmission? This vehicle is front wheel drive, 2wd right? Automatic or manual transmission?
Input shaft seal, axle seals on each side, at the shift control levers maybe, the transmission pan seal, if it is a split case, where the two parts of the case mate. Where is this “bushing” being talked about among all those? The only bushing I can think of is where the input shaft is supported at the center of the flywheel/flexplate. But is a leak there possible? Or is the bushing what I refer to as the input shaft seal? And that’s more expensive b/c it requires the transmission be removed or at least scooted out of the way.
split case is more commonly associated with a manual transmission
I suspect OP’s Ford Escape has an automatic