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i've been overlooking these wet spots so far but i'm curious as to what may be causing them. any idea?

two spots on the valve cover:



these ones are from the trans. i'm guessing the seal/gasket is worn out.
from the bottom:




top view:


my car is an 04 atx and is coming up to 60k miles. shifts fine and trans fluid level is normal. should i just go ahead and change the trans fluid along with the gasket?

The spots on the valve cover are pretty normal. Mine has that too.


You kind of have to change the fluid when you change the gasket since you have to drop the pan. I can't remember if there is an actual gasket of if you are supposed to use silicon to make a gasket. Its not very hard just make sure you get all of the old gasket material off the pan and don't gouge the mating surface.

the spots on the valce cover well i guess its like racer12306 said cause mine has that sometimes also.

Valve cover is seepage by the oil fill gasket and the PCV valve threads. Check your cam position sensor, it may be the biggest offender for the oil by the ATX, unless the oil is red. I just RTV'ed my CPS last night. It actually seems to be sealing. Just use sensor safe RTV, and keep it off the thrust area for the cam if you do go that route.

occasional demons wrote:Valve cover is seepage by the oil fill gasket and the PCV valve threads. Check your cam position sensor, it may be the biggest offender for the oil by the ATX, unless the oil is red. I just RTV'ed my CPS last night. It actually seems to be sealing. Just use sensor safe RTV, and keep it off the thrust area for the cam if you do go that route.

how do i go about doing that? wheres is the cps located and what does it look like?

viewtopic.php?t=14888&highlight=cam+position+sensor
step#21 it is right below the PCV valve on your valve cover.

cool, thanks! i think i'm gonna replace the pcv valve while i'm at it.

Around the oil filler hole is fairly common. You could wipe the area clean with a degreaser and see how quickly it reappears. This could also be due to some dripping when topping up the oil.

Around the PCV valve... you have some leakage there. There is a special compound you can purchase for this type of application that seals up the threads on the PCV when installing. I did that with mine earlier this summer... no leaks.

You might want to consider replacing the fluid/filter on your tranny. There is no gasket there... just RTV.

Also check the area of your cam position sensor... that is known to leak as well.

do you happen to have a name of that compound that i can use on the threads of the pcv? and yeah, i'm going to check the cam position sensor first before committing to replacing the trans fluid.

oil-proof teflon tape for the pcv valve, And Black silicone form-a-gasket on the transmission pan for a gasket. Those wet spots are oil leaks.
P.s your tranny fluid is burnt! is should be cough syrup red, not pepsi brown!

ok thanks.
i'm guessing that's a bad thing, but is it just from the heat of the engine or do you think it's like that inside the tranny? the trans doesn't act up or anything.

Well, if that is trans fluid then its bad. If that is engine oil its not.

gotcha, i will double check it when i get a chance

[DJ]Tomski wrote:do you happen to have a name of that compound that i can use on the threads of the pcv? and yeah, i'm going to check the cam position sensor first before committing to replacing the trans fluid.

I think the tube is in my trunk... I'll see about digging it up this week.