I have a '04 GT manual and i've noticed an occasional drip from the back of the car. It's not everyday but every few days there's a small oil-looking drop on the garage floor. What could this be? Is this a quick fix or something worse? Thanks.

 

Could you be a bit for specific on where the drip is? Automatically I think rear main seal, tailshaft seal, differential cover gasket, but It would be helpful if you gave a more specific sense of where you're talking about.

 

Could be coming from the rear end......Maybe the back of the trans near the tail shaft if there is a crack in the case.....Possibly a leak in a rear brake line, but I think you would notice a change in the braking ability.

If you get up under there you should be able to spot oil on either if it one of them is leaking.

Is it for sure oily?.....Cuase the other option would be fuel (lets hope not)

 

Oh sorry,it's oily and it's from the middle of the back of the car,and it's about one tiny oily drop a day.

 

I'm betting seal on the rear diff cover. Only way to find out is to poke your head under there and run a finger around the edges and see if anything oily is on your finger when you are done.

Mine was leaking about a year ago (because of an incidental offroading experince at 70mph). I just took the cover off, cleaned off old gasket, put on new gasket with cover, and refilled with gear oil.

 

The good thing about oil is that once it starts leaking it doesn't just go away. If something is leaking you will be able to find it fairly easily. The diff cover is a pain simply because you have to replace all the fluid in the rear end. (Which takes a 1/2 inch drive on the "front"(closest to the front of the car) side of the diff on the driver's side.) If you have a pump it's not really a big deal. Just put a good bead of RTV along the edges of the diff cover and then slap a new gasket on it.

The seal going bad is fairly common, especially if someone jacked the car up by the diff and damaged the cover in some way.

 

Best case is it's the seal of the rear. I would change that first. If it continues leaking, your ring and pinion could be shot, thats the first sign of a bad ring and pinion gear so just be wearing. If it keeps leaking after you replace the seal then you need to get a new ring and pinion set up otherwise you rear will lock up.

Keep in mind, this is the worst case, but the case that happened to me. Luckly I caught it before the rear decided to lock up but its something to keep in mind.

 

Which of your cars did that happen to Steve?

KatarHol- Have you gotten around to going under the car to check? Give us an update when you do.

 

It was on the 99 V6. But I did have a noise coming from the rear before that. So this is worse case. But when I did some research, the first sign was a leak from the diff. But like I said, worse case but it is something to keep in mind.

I also had metal shavings on the fill plug to so when Katarhol goes to fill the fluid he will be able to check to see.