Transmission leaking

In January Toyota replaced the frame on my 2013 AC with 5sp MT. Overall they a good job with only a couple minor things needing addressed after the fact.

About 3 weeks ago I noticed an oil leak from the trans. This evening I investigated and found it is leaking somewhere from the top where the shifter exits. Appears it could be from the vent. Have found no loose bolts and no evidence of any recent tool marks, other than maybe on the fill plug (hard to tell as its a bit rusty). Other than dripping the residual that has already leaked, it does not leak when parked & sitting for any amount of time.

I removed fill plug to check level and captured a solid 4oz of fluid in a can. Assuming an ounce or more having already leaked out, I am thinking dealer added too much to compensate for any they lost out the tailshaft when swapping over. Add in the higher ambient air temps, this is causing increase in pressure forcing fluid out.

Does this sound reasonable?

 

Did you go through the steps for an actuate level reading getting it up to temp first

 

He has a manual trans, no need to do the any temp checking.
Not picking on you man. I think you just missed that part?

The fluid should have just trickled out.
Toyota says, With the truck level, the fluid can be within 5mm of the of the fill port.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen the result of an over filled transmission.
But my bet it can leak from the vent, just like differentials do.

 

Have you pulled the center console and boot to take a look at the top of the trans? If I remember correctly, you can see quite a bit of the trans with the console out.

 

Thanks for the responses. Going to keep eye on it.

Yes, pulling the console & boot was next if it don't stop. Not sure how much I can see though, as from the underside it appears there is just a hole about 2.5" or so in diameter.

 

Yeah, this. I'd just monitor it for a while. Check the level in a few weeks and see if it's dropped any. Let us know what you find.

 

Found the leak!

It was coming out the top cover. More precisely, the seal between cover and housing had failed due to corrosion. The factory seal is metal with a rubber coating on both sides. The steel was rusted, which in turn swelled. Then the aluminum on the cover started to corrode. Been doing this for sometime too. Found evidence its been slooooowly oozing by the build-up of road-grime covered oil on side of transmission tunnel. It finally opened up enough to make itself really known.

Someone has been here before too. One of the 6 bolts was mismatched, and all way over snugged. Plus the floor pan around the opening was dented from someone prying against it. And I do not believe it was the dealer that did new frame, as I just cannot see why they would have needed to remove shifter. There is more than enough room for it to drop clear when body was removed.

Regardless of the how, in the end an easy fix in about an hour.

 

I the top photo, the rear-most end is on the left. The housing itself was largely corrosion free.

Bottom photo is rear of cover. All that black & white stuff is corrosion. Sanded all smooth with 400 grit. Cleaned everything, applied gaket sealer to both surfaces and reused factory seal. I decided to reuse seal as it was actually in decent shape. It was the exposed areas around the bolt holes that had rusted the worse. The sealing surface was still sound. Really the aluminum appeared to be rotting faster than the steel.