2003 NISSAN MURANO AWD – CVT fluid leaking out the tranny weep hole

First I want to say I have been watching your videos for years now and you are the best out there Eric! Thank you for your work!

I have a 2003 NISSAN MURANO AWD. The rear main seal was leaking so I had to seperate the transmission from the engine, pull the upper oil pan and replace the main seal the correct way. I replaced both axle seals and everything thing else I could during this repair. As far as the tranny goes, I didn’t do anything with it other than seperate it from the engine. Fast forward…everything went well and reassembly was complete. I refilled the radiator, engine and the power steering with new fluids. The tranny was low so I poured in a couple quarts of CVT fluid in. As I was doing this I noticed a sizable puddle of new CVT fluid on the ground. Definitely CVT fluid as it has a very distinctive smell. It is definitely coming out of the transmissions weep hole too. As we know, there should be no fluid coming out of the tranny’s weep hole unless it is gear oil leaking from the transfer case then out the tranny’s weep hole. Again, there is no doubt at all it is CVT fluid leaking. Before this repair the only leak was engine oil coming from the main seal.

My question is, where is this coming from? At first I thought I overfilled the tranny so it’s spill over is dumping out the weep hole. It was reading high on the dip stick so I started the car for a few seconds to refill the torque converter then problem would be solved. After doing this the dipstick was dry so I was sure I was right and I was back on track. Slowly I added CVT fluid, about 4 quarts, until it was at the proper level and no puddle was under the car. I thought my earlier assessment was correct and the repair was complete. Minutes later I had a large puddle of CVT fluid on the ground again.

Since the tranny was not leaking before, although anything is possibly, I wouldn’t think the shaft seal behind the torque converter would now be leaking. Especially this bad suddenly. The only thing I can come up with is, could it be the torque converter is slightly forward into the engine’s bell housing and not completely seated on the shaft (<— I’m not sure it’s correct name) of the tranny therefore it doesn’t stay full of fluid and that is what is coming out the weep hole? I hope I explained my theory clear enough that you can understand. One point worth mentioning, when I bolted the flywheel back onto the torque converter there is nothing scraping the bell housing as it would probably be doing if the torque converter wasn’t back in the tranny completely.

Any help resolving this will be completely appreciated. I will answer any questions you may have for me the best I can.

Thanks for your help.

Koda

• This topic was modified 3 years ago by Daniel Beasley.