Transmission Oil Spills

Hi, I live on a hot climate, 89 to 100 deg F most of the time. I had once a transmission fluid spill when doing a trip to the mountains. There was a lot of gear changing from the transmission and always was on Drive.

The van was doing OK all the time and never gave any simptoms of any defects or problems. After been parked over an hour a saw a oil trail leading to my van when I was going to leave. I check the oil level and added a quarter later that afternoon.

Never again this situation was repeated until saturday. I was again in a long trip trough the mountains. There is this long hill that you can travel at highway speed.

I was doing around 65 to 75 all the time for around 10 minutes. Suddenly I saw on the mirror smoke coming from the van. When I stop there was a severe leakeage from the transmission were the flywheel is.

I stop the van a few miles ahead when I found a car rental and keep on my way to a business trip. When returning I had a flat bead deliver my van home.

The van left some oil at the parking lot were it was later pick up by the flat bead and also on the flat bead.

I park the van on my garage for later inspect what could be the problem. The van left only a few drop on the garage. The following day I turned on tha van and left it running for about 20 minutes so it got a little hot for fluid level measurement. Only a quarter was missing. After that I ran the van around town for about 15 minutes and returned home.

I left the van park at the driveway and not a single drop of oil was spilled.

I have been told a few things but I want to know from your experience.

Any suggestions??

Just curious how you are checking the ATF level. Your post seemed to mention that you checked the level after letting it cool down completely and then added more ATF. Make sure to check the level with the ATF at operating temperature with the engine running after shifting through all the gears, otherwise you will overfill.

Well I forgot to mention that, Oil was checked both times when hot. The first time I check the oil level when I got the the Pep Boys parking space to see how much oil I was going to need.

The second time I check the oil when I noticed the smoke of the oil hitting the exhaust and seem to have a normal level even when had spill some. Yesterday I ran it for 30 minutes and then check the oil level and is in between the 2 marks on the dip stick.

I wonder if someone along the way put something in your tranny that is not the proper specification tranny fluid ... some flushing fluid perhaps .... maybe even motor oil (?).

Do you see any evidence of foaming?

No, I have not seen any evidence of contamination, when I bougth the van had 33800 miles and had the tranny oil on schedule to change but I have not change it yet. Now it has 41000 miles and I will change the oil this week.

One place that I would expect leakage due to overfilling would be where the transmission dip stick tube goes into the transmission housing...
Then it would run down the transmission housing to drip off of the bottom. With exhaust components just behind the bottom of the transmission housing.....smoke is an expected result.

I am wondering if the transmission dip stick tube is extra loose at the transmission case. And perhaps fluid can splash out.....such as when going up a steep hill....... As I seem to remember.....the tube goes into the case at the back side of the housing.

The first time This happened I check that. I don't know how much time at an incline position will be need it in order to leak trougth the dip stip.

One thing that is kind of confusing for me is that the owners manual states that the tranny uses around 15 quarts of fluid, I don't know if it's correct but sound like a lot of fluid for me.

At the first leak I went under the van a check for leaks, I ended up cleaning the whole tranny case from half down. After a few days of use I went back under it and found traces of oil but I thought it is from the remainings of that day. I clean it againg.

After saturday's incident I check under it again and the tranny is clean but covered on a film of oil the same that caused the smoke when hitting the exhaust.

It seems to me that the tranny leak trougth the converter seal or if the tranny has a vent hole there maybe the expansion of the oil when hot got trought it.

A friend that is on the tranny repairs told me that there a vent hole on those trannys and some even come with a tube to return the oil back to the tranny when they go really hot the oil spills trougth the vent.

Is there anyone that has installed a aditional oil cooler to a 2001 windstar??? I want to install one.

I have had this same problem with my 1999 windstar. On a trip of around
200 miles I noticed transmission fluid leaking at a stop I had made for gas. I went on to a larger city and stayed overnite, the next day i had my transmission checked out at a Franchise Transmission shop, they suspected that I had too much tranny oil in the transmission, since the day before the trip I had an oil change and fluid checked, so logically it made sense that maybe they put too much oil in the transmission and it was leaking from a weep hole. The next day driving to my destination and driving in town all day I had no problems, that night I hit the highway on the way home, temp outside was around 50, I was pulling some hills on the highway, several in a row as a matter of fact and noticed oil splatter on my back window, i suspected transmisison fliud leaking again, I was about 20 miles from any town, about 5 miles out smoke caused by the tranny fluid hitting my exhaust was rolling out of the back of the van...stopped about a mile from exit, transmission was bone dry... got to a store an hour and half later bought 6 quarts refilled and went on.. fought the leaking until about 80 miles from home, I slowed my driving to no more than 55 mph the rest of the way.. The van hasn't leaked since..

I took the windstar to a trusted mechanic, explaned the problems and how it only leaked when driving long distances or during a lot of shifting for hills, etc.. He sent me across the street to a trusted transmission shop and that's where it was all explained to me.. Seems the inadvertant leak is caused by a slightly worn seal, and at operating temperature the tranny oil heats up when working harder than normal, ie.
hills, long driving distance etc and leaks past this seal / bearing.. when everything cools down and I drive locally it never leaks, but if I go 100 miles it starts all over..

Needless to say sound to me you are expieriencing the same problem I had and the overhaul will cost me $1500.00

Or I trade it in ..

Hope this helps.

This is classic Ford stuff. The system provides just enough cooling for a transmission that spends most of its time locked. When in the mountains, the convertor is out of lock often to provide slippage and higher torque to the wheels. The slippage generates heat which is absorbed by the fluid which, when too hot, expands and blows out of the trans. If really hot, your trans will warn you that it's time to be replaced by blinking your overdrive light.

Once it has overheated, go right out and have the fluid changed. It has burned and little pieces of nice sharp carbon are eating into your seals. While getting it changed, have an aux cooler added and overheating will never happen again.

Marc/Atlanta
98 Windstar
98 SHO

Thanks , I understand now a little more about it. I know it is expensive to fix beacause it is a real pain to get that transmission out of there. I know a little about take it out put a new one in kind of fix.

After your van got fixed have you ever repeated the 200 mile trip again and confirmed that there's no more leaks?

I have a friend that works with transmissions and have ask him for this problem but he has never work on a windstar before. He usually do pickups trucks large cars like crown victorias and grand marquis etc.

He told me that heat is one of the reasons for the leakeage on most trannys througth a vent hole on the transmission due to oil expansion when hot. He recomend me to install an oil cooler as a first step.

But the vent hole on mine is on top of the transmission,so the leak throught a seal sounds more like it. Also I noticed that the van when driven under 60 mph on a trip has no leaks or just a few drops if the trip was long.

Do you remenber which seal(s) had to be replaced?? Did you have yours replaced??

Thanks again to all of you at the forum.

This is classic Ford stuff. The system provides just enough cooling for a transmission that spends most of its time locked. When in the mountains, the convertor is out of lock often to provide slippage and higher torque to the wheels. The slippage generates heat which is absorbed by the fluid which, when too hot, expands and blows out of the trans. If really hot, your trans will warn you that it's time to be replaced by blinking your overdrive light.

Once it has overheated, go right out and have the fluid changed. It has burned and little pieces of nice sharp carbon are eating into your seals. While getting it changed, have an aux cooler added and overheating will never happen again.

Marc/Atlanta
98 Windstar
98 SHO

THIS PROBLEM HAS OCCURED TWICE ON MY 2000 WINDSTAR 3.8L LX.
THE CAR PERFORMS VERY NICELY ON SHORT TRIPS, BUT I CANNOT RELY ON IT FOR LONG DISTANCE TRAVELLING. IF AN AUXILLARY COOLER WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM, I SURE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT INSTALLED. WOULD ANY TRANSMISSION REPAIR SHOP BE ABLE TO FIX IT? THE FORD
DEALER IN OUR TOWN (IN SAUDI ARABIA) REFUSES TO ACCEPT ANY WINDSTARS FOR REPAIRS!

I would never take my car to a dealership. Take it to a local mechanic that comes recommended by others and have a transmission cooler installed.

If you want to install the cooler yourself....I found some at good prices at http://www.bulkpart.com/

I have a cooler on mine.....and it works just fine. I have a Derale "Fin and Plate" cooler rated for somplace around 17500 GVW.
The transmission lines are 5/16". My cooler had 3/8" fittings, so I had to do some "adapting" in the flexible lines. If you get a cooler with 5/16" fittings....will be easier.

I have this exact same problem, same situation. But as time goes on, will my problem get worse? it seems that the trans is leaking more every trip.

i travel often, 1400 miles a week or so, all over the country. I have a 2001 windstar with 101K and i bought it with 75K in november of 06. i had the trans flushed, and put in valvoline high mileage fluid. I was travelling hard and fast through hills, and noticed white smoke out back of the van. i stopped at next exit, and the trans was leaking fluid like a stuck pig, all over the exhaust. dumped maybe a quart or 2. when it cooled down, I ran down a couple of miles to a gas station, and all they had was some heavy trans fluid for older cars, not what i needed, but some wrong fluid is better than no fluid (I thought). So I top it off with 2 quarts, and no problems the next 100 miles home.

Had a mechanic look it over, found residue from burned fluid, but no leaks. now all i get is some splatter on the back window when i drive it for a few hours, no real leaks.

What should I do now, with me driving so much? maybe a cooler like suggested here, or maybe time to trade it in? please help!

Have your mechanic verify that the flow through the cooler lines is correct.
You can remove the return line from the cooler (which is how I change my fluid) and start the engine.....with the engine at IDLE and the transaxle in Neutral, the return line from the cooler should flow about 1/2 quart in 30 seconds.

If the cooler becomes clogged, it will cause the transmission to overheat.
FORD has issued a TSB instructing that the cooler is to be flushed by a certain process....as when a transmission fails....it can cause a lot of junk to clog the radiator mounted cooler.

If the radiator mounted cooler is in good shape......an auxillary cooler is a good idea.
Also, a synthetic fluid is a good idea (Mercon V is now recommended by FORD as a replacement for Mercon).

Once you suspect that your fluid has been overheated.......change it out using a quality synthetic fluid.
I have used Mobil 1 with success, and now have Redline D4 in there.

Capacity on my '96 is 12.25 quarts.
I use about 14-15 Quarts to flush the fluid out.

IF AN AUXILLARY COOLER WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM, I SURE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT INSTALLED. WOULD ANY TRANSMISSION REPAIR SHOP BE ABLE TO FIX IT?
You don't have to take it to Ford. Any professional mechanic should be able to installer an auxiliary transmission fluid cooler - and plenty of forum members here have installed their own. It's not a very complicated job (but I admit, it's a bit out of my "comfort zone"). This is what they typically look like: http://www.bmracing.com/index.php?id=products&sid=4&cat=20&subcat=&pid=382

The common opinion around here seems to be that the biggest threat to
the Windstar's weak transmission is heat and failure to regularly change the transmission fluid. In the extremely hot temperatures of Saudi Arabia, this
would seem like a particular concern.