MarkPitarresi

I just had my gear oil changed and its leaking out of the 1st plastic under carriage cover. After it was changed I drove the car home about 45 miles of mostly highway before noticing fluid all over the place. Its a lot and has covered the undercarriage from the 1st plastic panel all the way back. Its even all over the rear bumper and engine deck lid. I called the Shop back and they were very polite and noted that they would take care of it. They also noted that it was probably slightly overfilled a little due to the temperature and where they stored the Motul gear oil. They went on to say that when the fluid got up to temperature that it possibly came out of the transmission over flow tube. At the end of our conversation they said just keep a close eye on it to see if it continues to leak and if does to drive the car back and they would take care of it.

I'm concerned that if they used the wrong fill plug that the transmission might be damaged or become damaged during the drive back to the shop.

I Read the DYI gear oil change post and noticed that their are two drain plugs on the side of the Transmission. I know they pulled the 1st plastic panel on the undercarriage but not the 2nd. The 2nd one uncovers the correct drain plug that is not as high as the first one.

Does anyone know what would happen if the gear oil was filled from that other drain plug. I read a post on hear someone said it would take 5 liters to get it to that level and that it could be detrimental to the transmission.

I have the car jacked up with both undercarriage covers removed now for inspection. The gear oil appears to be coming out the passenger side of the transmission where the axle goes in. I was about to remove the correct drain plug to see how much fluid comes out. Before doing so I thought I would check with everyone to see if its a good idea to do this or if I should pay a wrecker to take the car back to the shop.

p.s. if anyone knows a good way to clean Motul gear oil off of a cement drive way that would be much appreciated. Been using Breakleen NON-chlorinated to clean up elsewhere.

caslca

First thing - do not drive the car. No oil in tranny could lead to $$$$

Have you taken a look at the drain plug yet? Do you know where the fluid is coming from?

Also, what MY is your car?
On '10 and later, there are only 2 plugs/bolts - drain(bottom) and fill(top). You can't overfill unless you're doing the job with the car at a weird angle. With the car flat, you fill until fluid comes out the fill plug - that's how you know you're done.
You also check for fluid level by sticking your little finger in the fill hole and trying to touch fluid. If you can't touch fluid, you have to little.

Lastly, please do us all a favor and tell us who did the job!

Ducati_John

Try this for cleanup. I want to get some of this to try.
http://www.jaxxusa.com/_p/prd16/2305563121/jaxx-zorb

MarkPitarresi

Its a 2005 997. It has Three plugs on the transmission.

The car is level on jack stands and I pulled the correct fill plug and at least two quarts came out. They used the wrong fill plug to put the oil back in.

My biggest concern is possible damages to the transmission by driving 45 miles with it overfilled. It seemed to be fine and I did not notice anything until I saw the oil all over the place.

I would rather not say what shop it is because they have a very good reputation in the my area and said they will make good on the problem. We are all Human right? I would feel better about everything if I knew more about what happens with an overfilled manual transmission. I'm guessing it hard on everything including the seals.

ChicagoSpeed996

Probably not much except stress on the seals. If you see the seals start weeping, take it back to them to replace the seals. I was guess not much damage could be caused as the trans works on splash lubrication, it was just drowning in lube probably.

LexVan

For driveway cleanup try, Simple Green or Wurth Citrus Degreaser.

German888

Save that two quarts that came and out and take it them to show how badly they screwed up. Full refund for the work performed incorrectly at the very least.

Good job on your part figuring out the correct fill and correcting the problem. Good news is you now know how to DIY the grearbox oil. This is why I learned to do everything there is to do on a car myself many years ago. It's not uncommon to hear stories like yours where seemingly qualified techs don't have the competence or lack attention to detail.

mreloc

Incorrect- '10 and later still have three plugs. Two on the side, plus one drain at the bottom.

I'm also concerned, too, that they used the correct fill oil. Motul?? PTX is the correct gear oil.

I wouldn't be protecting the identity of this shop to this community, I would never want to take my car there based on how simple a gear oil change is and how hard it is to screw it up.

caslca

One plug on my car. The fill plug is on driver side:

mreloc

Turbo may be a different animule, I guess!

MarkPitarresi

I have been out of town and have not had time to update this situation. I called the shop back and they sent a wrecker to pick the car up. I put the extra fluid drained out in the fruck for them to see. It ended up being over a gallon over filled. After I got the car back it had issues shifting into 2nd gear. None of the seals are leaking. Just out of curiosity I pulled the fill plug and they overfilled it again. This time it was about a half liter overfilled. I ordered PTX fluid and changed it. My garage is level and I used high quality jack stands and the car was level. My guess is that the shifting problem was due to them using the wrong fluid. They used Motul instead of the mobile lube PTX. Major difference in shifting into 2nd gear. With the Motul it did not want to go into 1st and 2nd gear and popped out a few times when cold. With the PTX is just hard going into first when cold which I have found thats a common problem with the 997.1 cars with the Jap tranny.

Although they did try to correct the problem I would not recommend these guys. Crazy thing is they have a really good reputation in this area. The shop was RAC Performance in Carrollton TX

caslca

So glad for you for figuring it out! This is exactly why I prefer to do things myself.

Petza914

Wow. Surprised that happened at RAC. They used to be the RUF Auto Center (thus their current initials) until RUF pulled their distributorship from them. I'm not sure how many, if any, of the original guys are still there, but like you said, they do have a good reputation, or used to.

After the second fill, did you let the transmission cool before pulling the correct fill ugly, or was the fluid still warm? If it wasn't at room temperature, you may want to check the level again when it is as you might be slightly underfilled now if you pulled the plug when warm.

+1 on the PTX though. That is the absolute best gear lube for these transmissions.

German888

Big PTX fan here as well. Marked shifting smoothness improvement.

On RAC fumbling again that's a real bummer. Sounds like the technicians need to get a tune up...

MarkPitarresi

Yes, When I checked the fluid it was same as outside temp which was about 65f. Was just surprised that it was overfilled again. Probably not enough to hurt anything but non the less.

If it wasn't RAC I would not have hesitated as long as i did to post who the shop was. Previous experiences with electronic problems they were great.