hey i have a 88 nissan sentra se. everytime i park i have 1 or two small spots (baseball sized) of oil on the ground below the tranny. where do these leaks usually come from?

 

Put the car up on jackstands and find out where it is coming from. It could be coming from the transmission, the oil pan, or somewhere else. Look for where the oil is gathering and see if you can trace the source.

 

i can see a drop on the tranny if i let it sit overnight.

 

Is the oil clean or dirty?

 

it's clean.

 

My best guess is it is from the transmission. It could be an axle seal or maybe a drain plug seal.

 

thanks. i dont have a jack or jackstand handy right now , but i will take it to my friends garage tomorrow and look. i noticed there is a bolt on the tranny and then on top there are threads on the bolt like something goes on it?? it's weird. o well , thanks for the help. i figured it was somewhere around the tranny since the engine oil is usually dirty as ....

 

This may sound too simple, but heck I'll throw it out to you anyway. I noticed a small line of oil on the bottom of my transmission last week. Turned out the new oil filter I installed was not tight enough and oil seeped out from around the gasket and ran down onto the tranny.

Maybe worth a look. Once I tightened up the oil filter, that particular problem was solved.

At any rate, good luck.

 

im going to check that too. i bought the car for $320 , i'll prolly do a little tuneup. i think u may be right though. i just check and there are two litttle drips on the bottom of the tranny, i think the oil filter is right above where they are.

btw. did urs drip on the ground at all?

 

The leak was extremely slow and I had noticed the leak soon after changing the oil and filter. I guess it would have eventually, but I use the car alot so it would never have time to accumulate on the ground into a big messy puddle.

My other thought was the oil pan gasket which I beleive someone else mentioned previously. I had that particular problem on my 89 Chevy Sprint. The previous owner used silicon instead of a gasket, once I replaced that there were no more leaks.

If is was the oil pan gasket, it would not be getting onto your transmission though so I guess that is not very likely the culprit.

 

well mine isnt a puddle, just a small baseball sized circle stain on the asphalt of the street i park on.

also , if it is the filter, would the oil still be clean? the oil looks like new oil.