Help me identify this leak

[OHFIVETJ]

If you say so. Looks more like a crack than a stain to me.

And it looks dry forward of the wet area. So how is oil getting all the way to the tail end of the transmission without getting the area in between wet?

Figure area "A":
shows what looks like POSSIBLY cracks going farther down & spidering, unlike the single line ( crack ? ) above it. The only way to tell is going to be to try & clean it up, but i'm still sticking with a stain.

Figure area "B":
Shows fluid, which is NOT transfluid, above the drain plug & it's not red.

So my .02 / thoughts are:

1. Coming from a leaking valve cover seeping down & blowing back.
2. Rear main seal leaking & blowing back
3. Oil Pan gasket or ( rotted / rusted oil pan ) ( common ) leaking & blowing back.
4. Oil Filter gasket pinched / kinked / not tight or too tight, leaking & blowing back

Only the OP / Chippy will be able to answer this once it's all degreased / cleaned up nice.

Keep us posted !!

 

[MikeE024]

Figure area "A":
shows what looks like POSSIBLY cracks going farther down & spidering, unlike the single line ( crack ? ) above it. The only way to tell is going to be to try & clean it up, but i'm still sticking with a stain.

Figure area "B":
Shows fluid, which is NOT transfluid, above the drain plug & it's not red.

So my .02 / thoughts are:

1. Coming from a leaking valve cover seeping down & blowing back.
2. Rear main seal leaking & blowing back
3. Oil Pan gasket or ( rotted / rusted oil pan ) ( common ) leaking & blowing back.
4. Oil Filter gasket pinched / kinked / not tight or too tight, leaking & blowing back

Only the OP / Chippy will be able to answer this once it's all degreased / cleaned up nice.

Keep us posted !!

View attachment 642369

I believe the spider web action (section A) and squiggle line leading to it is a mix dirt and oil that migrated.

I added red arrows and rotated the photo to help show where oil appears to be migrating from in the photo.

I agree with tightening down the valve cover to see if it solved the issue.

Also, do you have any oil running back from your oil filler cap or rear PCV (from a potential crack)? How does the rear main seal area look?

I would tighten the valve cover and clean the oil up up as good as you can (including behind the engine up top), then see how things go from there.

 

[g.hayduke]

OP already stated area forward of obvious wet area is dry.

How is oil blowing back from the engine as hypothesized without getting oil anywhere but the tail end of the transmission?

Seems a bit supernatural

And how can you identify the type of liquid from a picture?

 

[Link]

Reading is fundamental. OP has already clarified it’s a manual transmission. The initial post was a little unclear but it has since been clarified. We are clearly seeing leaking manual transmission fluid….Redline MTL per the OP. My money is on a leaking drain plug as I had one on the same transmission and it looked just like the OP’s leak.

 

[g.hayduke]

Reading is fundamental. OP has already clarified it’s a manual transmission. The initial post was a little unclear but it has since been clarified. We are clearly seeing leaking manual transmission fluid….Redline MTL per the OP. My money is on a leaking drain plug as I had one on the same transmission and it looked just like the OP’s leak.

So your leaking drain plug, like the OP's, was NOT actually dripping from the drain plug, but from an adjacent location, like the OP's?

I would expect the drain plug itself to be dripping as much or more than other areas if that is the source.

Certainly makes sense to ensure drain plug is not leaking but there seems to be some evidence of it being something else.

 

[Link]

So your leaking drain plug, like the OP's, was NOT actually dripping from the drain plug, but from an adjacent location, like the OP's?

I would expect the drain plug itself to be dripping as much or more than other areas if that is the source.

Certainly makes sense to ensure drain plug is not leaking but there seems to be some evidence of it being something else.

Looked just like the OPs pic. Tightened it a little more and no more leaks. Mine is also screwed in a lot deeper than the OP’s furthering my suspicion it’s not tight enough. And, if mine kept leaking I would have removed it and wrapped it with teflon tape.

 

[g.hayduke]

I hope @Chippy gets back to us soon with his first hand findings.

 

[Chippy]

I will. Today I’m going to re-tighten the valve cover bolts to spec in the correct order, tighten the trans drain plug a little more, and degrease/clean the trans, oil pan, engine etc so I can try to identify where the leak is coming from when/if it returns.

I’ll also check to see if that’s a crack in the trans housing. I think it’s just oil/dirt stains though.

 

[Garner Monroe]

smell it or taste it, that should give you the answer. If anything, i would ask Chat GPT or something like that what it is. It might be at that point on the Jeep because it is the lowest point.