Got up this morning and found a fairly large puddle of red oil under my 07 f250 ccsb fx4 this morning. I immediately thought it was tranny fluid but got the truck warm drove it around the block and tranny fluid is spot on the hot mark while idleing in park. My coolant is red but it is exactly where it always sits. Power steering is the only thing I can find just a little low maybe a half inch low. The fluid looks like its coming from the front of the tranny. Only thing left is to check is the transfer case. Any other ideas. The spot was probably a 1ft by 1ft damp spot on concrete.

 

Start with smelling it. Many of the fluids used in our vehicles have distinctive smells. Then, smell the various open containers of the new fluids that you have in your garage. At least this way, you may be able to tell what the fluid is. You have already narrowed it down by its color. Not many "red" fluids.

Use an aerosol degreaser and hose and clean off any oily, greasy places around the bottom of the engine and tranny. Then drive around, get the fluids warmed up, park it for a while until you see drips on the pavement, crawl under with a strong light and look around.

My money is on the tranny or power steering.

And it may not matter if it is auto or manual: don't know about newer trucks, but my 03 6.0diesel crewcab 4x4 F-350 manual tranny uses red auto trans fluid.

Good luck.

 

Pretty sure it's tranny. It's dripping off the tranny lines near the bellhousing. I don't know how power steering would get back there but I'm going to do some more searching and will let y'all know. But does it make sense that it dripped that much overnight and it's not showing low at all?

 

Did you check the tranny fluid with the truck running or off?

 

Has the truck been serviced or have you added any fluid?? if it is overfilled it will come out the vent on the trans.

 

It is amazing how much fluids can spread out. It only takes an ounce or two to make a 1ft diameter puddle, a small leak can make a big puddle and not be enough fluid loss to show a change in level on the dip stick.

Keith

 

Checked it warm and running in park. I haven't added or serviced the tranny since I bought it. Vent is possible though because its coming from somewhere fairly high. Gonna crawl under it today and see what I can find. Keep y'all posted on what I find

 

Ok after cleaning everything up really good and driving around for a few days continuously checking fluid levels and signs of leak I can't find anything else so far. I'm guessing that maybe it was to full and just finally got warm enough to purge out the vent? Sound possible? This was the longest trip so far since I bought the truck. If this fixes the problem then I'm onto the next project...Gauges! Ill make a separate post about that.

 

Mine did this over the summer on me a couple times, dripped out a tiny amount of trans fluid. Mine looked like it came from the pan though, and it was a month or so after a fresh trans rebuild. Never did it again and my fluid seems fine.