Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster here. I have a 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE with about 197,000 miles and a manual transmission.

My car has been leaking a minor amount of trans fluid. I put a pan under it when I start the car and after my 25 mile drive to work. It was a very minor leak...probably a dozen drops or less after the drive. Maybe 3 or 4 when I let the car warm up (about 10 minutes). Recently, I took the car for a short drive so I could check the fluid and measure how much I needed to add each week. All of a sudden when I got home to jack it up there was fluid leaking badly. A steady drip that left half a quart behind in a day. I could then see it is leaking from the passenger side output shaft seal. The old one was an aftermarket but didn't look damaged, dry, or anything. I got a new OEM one but installed it wrong, it slipped in too far so it still leaked. I am getting a new one today but I wanted to ask you all- is the shaft damaged? It looks like whoever put in the last one went crazy with a hammer. There is a nick on the upper right side...the lip is nicked pretty actually. Could this cause oil to get past the seal? i wonder if there was a temporary band-aid made by the guy who sold it to me like stop leak or some sort of gasket maker. And the metal is thinner on the sides...is this normal? The car runs, drives, and shifts great otherwise. I included the link for a photo of it. If more photos are needed, I will post them tonight when I get back from work.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f39/g ... xc30mr.jpg

I appreciate any help you have.

Welcome to NICO Club!

I apologize, but I cannot see the image from your posted link. It just shows a generic image asking for money to enable 3rd party hosting. I'm not sure, but I think there are different length shafts for each side of the tranny output. I think one side has a retainer clip and I think that is the passenger side. I don't know for sure. Have you looked at the FSM? Check the AX and MT chapters...
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Sentra/2001_Sentra/

Thank you for your reply. My apologies, does this one work?

http://imgur.com/6LRxAxT





Thank you

The obvious ding on the upper right is likely OK but can't tell what that is toward the bottom of bore but may just be oil that ran to the low spot. If oil only then run the crap out of it but of course you need to learn how to put in a seal.

That smallest bore needs to be clean, if those are dents inside it that is a problem, can be cleaned up to work but specialty work (even more so using a brain) needed there.