Water Dripping From Transmission
 

Changing my oil yesterday I noticed I have a seal leak on the bottom of the joint between the main and tail transmission housings. Soaked all around but without visible dripping. (Also noticed an oil leak along the entire back edge of my oil pan.. :(, but that's another matter). The water comes into play when out of curiosity I peek under the car after a 18 mile highway trip to see if anything is dripping from either of my newly discovered seal leaks. I see dripping, but from about 6" in front of the leaky transmission seal. I capture a drop with a piece of white paper and find out is it nothing but pure water.

How is it that water is dripping off the transmission like that? I haven't had a chance to investigate under the car where the water is coming from; any ideas? I can't imagine that AC condensing would be to blame.. too far back and the temp outside is 52 degrees F. Thanks in advance.

If it is "pure water" as you say, it is likely condensate from the A/C evaporator. The A/C is going to produce condensate if it operates at 52 degrees, unless the humidity is zero. Higher inside temps could cause the A/C to activate and remove moisture from the air. True, colder air has less moisture per unit volume, but there still could be enough at that temperature to result in a condensate drip.

As far as location of the drip, the water may be running down the housings and dripping at a point some distance from the drain pipe. Look closer for the actual source of the water.

Water.....
 

...and don't forget that the a/c will come on in various circumstances, even when the light says it's off, so it can drip even though it was "off" the whole trip.

S

is it normal for a small amount of water to drip from underneath the engine when the A/C is running? I've never noticed my other car dripping when I run the A/C.

I haven't ran my A/C on the 8 in a long time, but ran it a bit today. And, when I was parking I noticed some dripping. I touched the drops and they felt just like cold water. I also used a white tissue paper to dap the drops to see what color they are, and they appear to be clear (ie no color).

Is this normal? I've ran the A/C last summer and never noticed water leaking before...

I live in Florida and we use our A/C.......all day.......almost 365 days a year!
Yes, you will see drips of water and I'd bet it's just A/C condensation. We see puddles of water under EVERY single vehicle! Although the freakin pavement is so hot, it evaporates pretty quickly! Next time you go somewhere, don't use the A/C and I'll bet you see no drips or small puddles.

I'm more concerned about you oil leak! Go get that fixed right away!

thanks mazurfer... i guess i won't worry about it then...

i have an oil leak? :scratchhe <lol> i didn't see any oil down there... just water. :)

umm... no thanks abbid. u wanna taste it for me? i'll ship u a sample. :)

I was responding to the first post!