Straight8

Don't think I've seen this one yet. Smelled what I thought was burning oil last night as I was gassing up. Went to the dealership today for the recall work and mentioned it to them. They put the car on the lift and it turns out I was smelling tranny fluid.

Transmission tail shaft seal is leaking! 22k miles seems pretty damned early for a seal to fail. Hope I'm not a trend setter.

beachdog

You are the first that I have seen here. They're going to fix under warranty, right?

What type of fluid were you running? Someone here had reported a differential leak after switching to synth.

Straight8

It's definately warrantied, good thing too because a lot of stuff has to come off/apart to get to it. The tranny fluid is the same that came in it when purchased. Guess I'll finally get around to having it changed now.

OfficerFarva

is the tail shaft right underneath the tranny? cus thats where my leak is and i have only 13500 on the car! at the dealer they told me since i had an aftermarket shifter that that was the prob, and i see no relation between the two.

ranger4277

I just noticed I have a leak at this same location, at the seal between the tail and the main.... only 18.5K on mine. On a related note it appears my oilpan is also leaking a bit on the back edge. At least I should only have to make one trip to the dealer....

Josche

I just noticed a puddle on the floor of my garage. When I checked, it appeared to be an oily fluid coming out of the transmission. I also have an aftermarket shifter (Richard Paul's). Should I throw the old one back in before I take it into the dealership?

pcimino

I think some dealers are always looking for an excuse to get you to pay for the repair. Although they get paid by Mazda for warranties. I think they get a pre-agreed on payment for the type of work. But if the consumer pays, well the tranny took 2.5 hours instead of the 2 hours Mazda said, etc.

It depends on how competent and how much you trust your dealer and service dept.

If it doesn't take long, just put the original back in before servicing.

beachdog

There is no way that the short shifter would be related to the leak, BUT, the dealer will use it as an excuse. You put in a high performance shifter therefore you drive aggressively and blew the trans seal.

late8

Sorry to revive an old thread but I rather add to this one instead of starting another one. I have an '06 MT (Feb. build) with only 9700 miles on the clock and I've developed a transmission leak exactly where ranger4277 had mentioned in the above quote.

What lead to this discovery was the strong scent of transmission fluid in the cabin after a few days of driving following a trip to my Mazda dealer for the recall work and a transmission fluid/differential fluid swap. I thought there might be a possiblity some of the fluid may of puddled around the surrounding flanges of the transmission but both areas of the drain and fill plugs were clean.

I drove to a local shop in my area yesterday and they were kind enough to lift the car up on a rack (for free) for a better inspection and thats when we discovered transmission fluid slowly seeping from the transmission tail seal housing.

I made an appointment with my dealer next week but what am I in for? Will they have to drop my entire transmission to service this seal? My service advisor would not elaborate over the phone so I'm asking those of you who had this done, is it a big deal?. Thanks in advance.

late8

Straight8

LOL - My rear seal went out again earlier this month - 34k this time. Has something to do w/me driving to the Dragon every year...


They wont drop your entire tranny. All the under-bracing has to be removed as well as the exhaust. They'll just pop out the tail shaft then. Ask them to inspect your tail shaft. Mine was scored the second time around and the mechanic was able to smoothen it out. Not sure if the scores contributed to the second seal failure or not, or the seal wasnt repaired properly the first time around, or I just may have a larger issue - mismachined tranny case.

Anybody that has had this problem before should be aware that I have only discovered the leak while making 1000+ mile road trips. Two long road trips - two seal failures....

late8

Thanks for the info straight8. I hope this isn't a start of something that's going to snowball into something bigger (mismachined tranny case?). I commute 80 miles a day (all highway miles) and I redline a least once a day so I hope I'm not stressing the tranny out too much. I'll keep an eye out after its been repaired to see if the seal holds up.

late8

^^I'm happy to report that my dealer found no visible signs of any leak. There was a good amount of blow back from a recent fluid swap around the bell housing that was cleaned up so I'm hoping this will solve the smell of tranny fluid in the cabin.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

LOL, my trannys don't last long enough to find out ...

MadDashRX8

I'm on my third seal. Minor leak at about 15k, replaced seal. Leaking again/still at 17k, replaced damaged seal due to improper installation. I had them refill with Redline at that time. Went back in for a leaking seal, but I crawled under there this time. They forget to tighten the fill plug. Wasn't even hand tight! I got to meet the service manager that time.

Don't recall anything specific that could have caused the leaks; they just happened.

late8

Well after an entire day of just sitting in my garage, my 8 still had the awful smell of tranny fluid in the cabin so I returned the car to my dealer last Friday and they reversed their first diagnosis and told me that my transmission tail shaft seal WAS leaking.

I was pissed that I wasted two days that could of went towards repairing my car. The service advisor was embarrased by the mis-diagnosis but he still had the nerve to ask for an excellent survey score when Mazda's form comes in the mail .

Mazda covered my rental for the weekend and I'm hoping to get a call this afternoon with good news.

Dookie_Rx-8

i think i have the same problem as everyone else... "transmission tail seal housing" cuz im getting a few drops everyday on the floor... anyone know how long they take to fix... 65k miles

Straight8

Takes longer to get the part than it does to fix. I think it should take no longer than 3 hours, if that. Exhaust and all under bracing has to be dropped first.

Dookie_Rx-8

they said my "seems were leaking"(drips from the big 4 bolts on the tranny at the rear) dont know if its the same as tail seal housing? but they said they would have to drop my transmission, didnt know if it was bullshit or not...

swoope

iTrader: (5)

not bullshit. and yes that does describe the tail housing.

beers

Psychofox

my transmission developed this problem 2 years ago and i've had the rear seal replaced/replaired 5 times by 2 different shops already, but the problem would arise after a while (about 500 to 1000 miles). it appears that if i floor it, the leak would become worse. does anyone know what's causing this problem??

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

that looks like it's coming out at the front of the trans, not the rear

hayasa8

Our cars have some issues that are the nature of lots of revs...seals aren't really designed with the strange harmonics that 9000 rpms of rotors make, so they leak, and that's just the nature of it. In many 7's that had more leaks than their age dictated, people were hitting limiters, and the whole spinning assembly lurches forward when the limiter hits, don't know why, could offer some conjecture but don't have any math to back it up, but if you put an FC on a lift and rev it until the the rpms just stop, either by limiter or fuel (depending on the car) while watching the crank pulley you'll see it kind of jerk to and fro transversely from its spin, which means side and corner seals fail (I would imagine much more so in a peripheral port, based on the fact the side and corner seals have less surface area holding them in)<<<<i know separate issue<<<<<< and oil seals stretch...the tail shaft is the ultimate extension of all these strange vibrations...

also, the first time I power shifted second (in a brand new 8) I noticed throbbing and thought "not good"...any time you have a throbbing in a spinning assembly you know something is out of balance and will soon be leaking...IMO...flame on...

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

^^ Not a bad bit of conjecture.
However, the rotational inertia of the front spline shaft wouldn't have much in the way of harmonic vibration. It seldom gets to 9k RPM, anyway - that would be really, really fast in 5th gear and not possible in 6th. Any gear lower than that is reduced.
What is more likely is that these cars are having recall work done and all the odd raising and lowering of the engine (for the tranny damper, the motor mounts, etc.) is stressing the seal by contorting it trans-radially.

BTW - I'm not sure what you mean by "power-shifting" (I know what it means, but I'm not certain that you do), but it is likely that what you felt wasn't a normal sound/vibration but, rather, one you caused by improper use (or lack thereof) of the clutch.

hayasa8

The number of revolutions at the tail doesn't seem relevant to me, as I was talking about the harmonics, and the seal that was pictured above looks like it was either the trans input shaft or the rear main (i do know the topic of the forum is however related more to the tail shaft, and I can't tell if some folks are dealing with the tail housing gasket in the trans case or the tail housing, but yeah most it is last seal on the trans)...but yeah good point on the lifting of the car...power shifting (in the context of my conversations, as it is only vernacular based on demographics; without a webster's definition, and there's likely a more widely accepted definition) is shifting at high rpm with the clutch quickly released and in gear before the engine's revs have time to fall (so with a tight clutch they normally are "slammed" there) to where they would be in slower synchronized shifting...i.e... when you shift without using the clutch and just waiting for the engine speed to match the would be revs in the next gear and changing gears then.

Not that I want to be flamed or insulted but interested in the definition. And that throbbing in second was not a slipping clutch...so interested in your thoughts there...

Straight8

I think it has more to do with mismachined tranny housings. I'm now on my 4th seal. Each and every time I've had a failure has been during a 1000+ mile road trip, straight through driving.

May be totally off base here but I think the heat build up causes expansion which ***** the tail housing. The seal fails when the tail shaft position changes and starts nicking it. Twice I have seen the tail shaft after it was removed and can clearly see where scarring has taken place.