This can't be right. Driving with half attached tranny

[Ryan S.]

Came back home after a week long vacation and found a small puddle of red/pink liquid on the floor with a couple of drops of oil like substance, much lighter than engine oil. I said F$%$%#@ $h!# :what_the: brand new transmission already leaking tranny fluid.

This morning, I got under the car and trying to look for source of leak. Found some around gasket and bottom of pan. Not sure if it is coming from pan gasket or not. Governor area was pretty dry. As I was looking around for more and I said holy $h!t.:jawdrop: This cannot be right. My transmission wasn't attached to the right side mounting bracket. Both bolts are gone. Fortunately, left side was bolted to left mount. I cannot believe I didn't catch this.

6 months, 4800 miles, and $8000 ago, my transmission was replaced with a brand new DMC automatic tranny. I didn't really noticed anything until today. I may know why right side wasn't attached. I had an external tranny filter/cooling kit that was attached to the right side and installer probably forgot to get shorter bolts back on when he removed filter/cooling kit. Took me about an hour, including driving to Home Depot for new bolts, to attach tranny to the right side mount. Second bolt was a PIA and required several trial and errors. Anyways, I am pretty upset and concerned. I am thinking what else is not attached??

Does anyone know driving with half attached tranny has caused or will cause any permanent damage to tranny or my car? I am not sure if this is why tranny fluid was leaking. I would love to send my car back to the shop but just don't want to spend $1000 to ship my car there.

This really makes me sick to my stomach.

[DMC5180]

That you found the missing bolts is pure luck. You had no apparent clunks from excess movement to indicate there was a problem. These transmissions are known for leaking. Check the dipstick tube into the case area for signs of leakage. A remote possibility might be a crack developed on the left side of the case due to torque load and twisting. What you really need to do is wash the oiliness from the transmission so that it appears dry. Brake cleaner or starting fluid works really well for this. Ether stinks like crazy but evaporates extremely fast (no smoking). Once the area is dry go for a short drive then check to see if and where fresh oil appears.

[Ryan S.]

I didn't see any leakages near dip stick tube. Per your suggestion, I cleaned the area well and will watch for any leaks.

Last night, I drove my car around with both side bolted. It could just be my imagination but car seems to shift smoother now. When I got my car back from the shop in March, I felt that shifting was a little rough and driving was little bit off but I figured because it was a brand new tranny. Plus the shop manager told me that he test drove it himself and everything was fine. Never the less, I always felt something wasn't quite right but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I really hope it didn't cause any permanent damages.

I am really bummed about the whole thing. I put almost $10K for this new tranny and other works and now this... :facepalm:

[DMC5180]

I highly doubt anything internal would be adversely affected.

Where was the work done?

[vwdmc16]

DmcCA

[Nicholas R]

"Fine" or not, you should still be given an extended warrenty for the work at a minimum. Forgetting to mount something (like a transmission) in place is a pretty serious screw up. That says that at the end of the job, no one even thought to look back and verify that everything had been completed. I know I dont finish any job without at least looking back at my work and going, "Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep; ok, it's all back together; I can try to start it now." I would hope any shop would have that same mentality at the least.

As far as damage, the transmission is probably fine. The things that may suffer from this are going to be the one transmission mount that was hooked up (since it was taking so much more load than normal), and maybe some extra wear to your CV joints. There probably wasn't too much opportunity for your transmission to twist and torque since its bolted to the engine but still. It is possible that you could have been feeling the additional vibration while driving before since there was less restraint on the drivetrain. That would have changed the natural frequency of the system and allowed much more freedom for vibration.

Anyway, hope you're given an extended warranty if nothing else.

[David T]

You should check everything you can externally. Make sure the trans is not overfilled, that could cause it to leak. Clean it off well and see where it is leaking from. I doubt you had any damage from the missing bolts.

[davidc89]

I wasn't really sure what to make of the title of this thread, but now it makes sense...

[DavidProehl]

Sorry about all this trouble. At least you caught it before any damage was caused. Keep us posted on the leak, I'm interested to see if that goes away now that the tranny is properly supported and isn't being twisted in ways it wasn't designed for.

[Dangermouse]

As this is a mighty auto, don't forget about the torque convertor. Up to a point any misalignment in the overall drive train, due to one side of the transmission being unbolted would be taken up in the TC. But beyond that point, I would think that there would be some interference inside the TC. All depends on the tolerance of the TC.

I replaced a transmission mount on my DD recently, and there was a noticeable difference in smoothness of gear change, so you probably weren't imagining that.

[Nicholas R]

As this is a mighty auto, don't forget about the torque convertor. Up to a point any misalignment in the overall drive train, due to one side of the transmission being unbolted would be taken up in the TC. But beyond that point, I would think that there would be some interference inside the TC. All depends on the tolerance of the TC.

I replaced a transmission mount on my DD recently, and there was a noticeable difference in smoothness of gear change, so you probably weren't imagining that.

As long as the bellhousing bolts are properly torqued, this shouldn't be too much of an issue though. The clamping force from the bolts should be far more than enough than to prevent the bellhousing face to slip on the engine face. Plus the alignment pins would also take most of the shear load if they started to slip. This is of course assuming at all of the bellhousing bolts are installed and properly torqued (which at this point would be worth double checking).