yeah its so frustrating... I cant believe there isnt a dip stick to add more fluid..its a crazy design

 

if it is a leaking tranny seal. what do you think the cost would be?

 

You need to confirm where the leak is.

However since you have seen a transmission warning sign and you have high mileage with the original transmission fluid, pan, and sleeve I would recommend you having a transmission fluid, pan and sleeve change as a matter of course.

A dealer will charge quite a bit. Here on the East Coast I was quoted $1300 by a local dealer which is why I did it myself.

I believe even dealers out in your neck of the woods charge less however a good indie shop would charge less for sure.

While getting it done get the transmission cooler lines checked for leaks.

 

yeah i got quotes in the 800 - 1000 range if the problem was really bad

 

You need to get the work done for sure. However you also need to confirm exactly what is leaking.
If you can get a complete flush and change of transmission fluid that would be the best.

 

I have a 2004 XJ8 and I thought it was leaking transmission fluid too. It took me a couple years to figure out it was coolant leaking down onto the plastic drip pan. ( the 1 you have to remove to change the oil). The fluid mixed with old dried up dirty oil that had gotten on the pan and migrated back to the transmission. It blew back from the wind of driving to the end of the transmission where the driveshaft comes out and regularly dripped from that area after the car was parked. The color looked identical to transmission fluid. The coolant is orange and the old oil is black so together they had the color and consistency of transmission fluid. Sounds like you do need the transmission fluid changed with that many miles. It's not a hard job except sometimes the torque head bolts strip out. I soaked mine up with penetrating oil on the topside a day in advance and replaced the bolts. I use valvoline maxlife atf from walmart. It has worked great for the last 5 years for me. I also bought the pan/filter off ebay for $100. The fluid runs about $5 a quart. Here is valvolines chart showing the shell spec for the fluid

http://www.carquestprofessionals.com...%206.10.13.pdf

Hope you see this and hope it helps. I know it's been almost a month since your last post.

 

Thank you so much!! i agree my leak is suspicious. i havent driven the car in awhile due to the holidays, but tomorrow morning i am bringing it to a very honest trustworthy mechanic and i know he will solve this issue. there is no dash lights on and the car drives fine.. so i am hoping its a minor fix..cause I still love the car!!

 

thank you so much!

 

I ran into a similar problem. It turned out my trans pan was leaking. Got that fixed along with a complete fluid change. I was surprised at the difference with the new fluid. The transmission now shifts butter smooth, almost like a continuous variable transmission. My car has about 153K miles so it was due anyway for a fluid change.

On another note, my courtesy car was a 2017 Land Rover Discovery. I wasn't real impressed with it frankly. The transmission shifted way too early which caused a fair bit of vibration. Supposedly the SUV has 340 hp but my Jag has a lot better pickup. The seats on the LR were uncomfortable in comparison to my Jag. Also no comparison to ride quality. The LR rode fairly rough whereas my Jag had an effortless, smooth ride. One last complaint, the view out of the LR's back window was pretty poor. Maybe that's why they had a rear view camera.