I have an 08 v50 2.4i, and over the past few months of ownership the car will occasionally leak transmission fluid from the front of the car. the leak isn't come from the transmission, it seems to be coming from in front of the radiator, right behind the bumper cover. The leak only happens occasionally and there is no trend in what causes it. There is never really a large amount of fluid and it never leaks consistently. I can park the car for weeks and see no signs of a leak, then randomly there will be a small puddle under the car. it has never affected driving until today, on my way to work the car was shifting slower than usual. any idea what could be causing this?? Thanks a ton

 

I'd suggest just following the (fairly obvious) transmission cooler lines around "the loop" (everything that's connected to the lines from the tranny should create a loop - not sure if your car has a cooler in front of the radiator, but I'll bet it does). If you do find a wet spot and can't pinpoint the leak, try cleaning everything thoroughly and then check it again after a few miles of driving (it should be easy to spot then).

 

Should be some o-ring gaskets for the lines to the cooler that can easily be replaced - but you'd want to inspect to make sure there's not a crack in the fins etc. Interesting side note - the procedure for doing a transmission flush (not just a drain fill) is to disconnect the transmission cooler lines to let the transmission pump out the old fluid. You may be able to find a write up on the procedure and do a flush while you have the system opened up.

 

Thank you guys, I know it should be pretty obvious to check that, but I wanted to make sure it wasnt a common thing among these cars. if it was it would be a lot easier to track down, but sounds like my car is a basket case of it's own. the car has quite a few problems that have appeared since I bought it. small things here and there. well thanks again

 

I don't think I've ever bought a "well used" car without having to do quite a bit of "deferred maintenance" on it. The good news is, once you do it, you're good to go for a LOT of miles. If you give up and buy another used car, you just start the process all over again (unless you're lucky enough to find one with impeccable service records, which usually come at a premium price, of course). A leak like the one we're discussing here should be a fairly easy thing to find - certainly well within the bounds of "normal shade tree mechanic-ing". The more you learn about your car, the better you know what's going on with it, and how to fix things, and the happier (and cheaper!!!) your ownership experience will be.