DataBore

I was psyched when I purchased my '97 CL 3.0 Premium with 121k miles a week ago from a private seller. The car drove perfectly, shifted perfectly, was near perfect cosmetically, and priced fairly, not cheap. I checked the car out as best as someone could with it on the ground. No leaks underneath. Everything under the hood perfect. Ran it through all the gears, perfect.

Horrified to find a big red stain on the ground where my car had been parked 4 days ago. Checked the tranny fluid level. It's good. Been checking it since, and it's going down, but it's still within range. Took the car to AAMCO today (to get it put on a lift for free) and was horrified to find a crap JB-Weld job on the transmission case.




The car is clean save for the cracked case. The transmission is also running perfectly, just leaking like a mother. Seller won't take it back, and there are no lemon laws in VA. I can't afford to have it disassembled and the case TIG welded, if possible, or replaced (definitely not at AAMCO) for a couple months, tops. I am not driving the car now but have been religiously checking the fluid level for the past 4 days when I was driving it. It has not been allowed to go below the proper level.

Thinking about putting the car up, draining it, sanding down the old crap JB job, cleaning the hell out of it, and repatching it meticulously so it will hold for a couple months max of light driving, with religious fluid/leak checks. I think I've got it narrowed down to using either JB-Waterweld or Quiksteel 2-part epoxies. Does anyone know of anything better for the job? Also, the crack is close to one of the bolts (that holds the two halves of the case together?) closest to the drain bolt. Is this a high pressure area on the transmission? Any recommendations for a stop leak additive when I do the patch and refill? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Stoked to own an Acura and join the forum a couple days ago. Didn't know I'd be threading in the "problems" forum so soon. SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS.

P0401

iTrader: (1)

I have seen JB weld do dome miraculous things for short term but don't know how well it holds up long term. I don't even know if you will be able to get the JB weld on there now off without causing a worse problem than you have now. If you did go this route for a short term fix I would probably drain it first and then try to clean it up real well with degreaser or something and maybe try to sand whats on there now down instead of trying to remove it all together and then maybe just adding to it instead of removing/replacing the whole thing. Any fluid that leaks in the JB weld until it dried will probably mess with the composition and make it still leak. To be honest I don't know if it will stop the leak at all, everything I have seen it used on was a non moving part that didn't have to seal a leak, just hold something together. Wonder how it got cracked? is there marks on it like it has scraped on something ?

DataBore

If you look next to the drain bolt there are some scrape marks where dude probably bottomed out. They look fairly new but I can't tell and have no idea how long the patch job has been on there. Of course when I called the guy he had noooooo idea what I was talking about. How long and what he used would have been helpful. Wondering if it's some 5 min quick set garbage put on while the tranny was wet. Has anyone ever used Quiksteel to patch something subjected to high temperatures and *possibly* high pressures? Wondering if this is better than the JB for this job. Is there some kind of additive I can put into the tranny when I fill it to help the leak from the inside? Something that won't screw with the seals? And this is totally short term. The crack running down to that bolt is worrisome. I'm going to have it done at a shop after a few paychecks.

P0401

iTrader: (1)

the thing with the additives is these transmissions. They are already pretty close to the worst transmissions on the planet and adding stuff to the fluid may cause more problems than just the case being cracked. Someone will have to chime in on this who is more familiar with these transmissions than I am because this is my first honda product also. I wouldn't hesitate to add it to a 700R4 or a 350 turbo trans but these are a whole different beast that I am not familiar with