Alright all you transmission experts. In all my experience I have yet to come across this so I need a little assistance.

5 speed manual AWD in an Element. All the shaft seals and o-rings started leaking at the same time. Drained the fluid and it came out black.

Started to disassemble the transmission and found all the rubber was swollen and puckered. The o-rings were so swollen they just fell out of their grooves.

As far as I know I am the last person to fill it with Honda MTF maybe 8-12 months ago and it hasn't been changed since.

Also noticed rubber crumbs under the collar where 6th gear would be on the main shaft. As well as oil and rubber deposits all over the case. All of the seals seem to be complete other than the chemical(?) damage.

Anyone ever see a failure like this?

 

Yikes. Nope, never seen that. Is it clear oil separating from whatever the black stuff is in the first picture?

 

Yeah I think whatever the black is, rubber(?), is separating from the oil.

It still smells like MTF and it's not burnt smelling.

A real head scratcher. Maybe an oil change place added some snake oil on an upsell?

 

Never seen anything like that before either. I would crack that transmission open and clean all of the rubber out, replace all seals and O0rings and try again.

 

Yeah no idea on this one.

Cleaned out all the sludge and inspected all the bearing surfaces. Amazing condition for 350k+ miles.

Put it back together with all new rubber bits and it shifts like butter.

Guess we will see what happens in a year.

 

Carbon synchros?

 

Stock brass synchros and surprisingly a factory carbon synchro on 5th.

 

Not uncommon. What kind of shape is it in as that can DEF turn the fluid black if its wasted

 

Everything looked brand new in there. All the synchros were sharp and the braking teeth were all sharp. Not even any shadowing on the bearing surfaces or synchro cones.

Actually had to believe it has 350k+ miles on it.

 

**** man ya thats wierd