2005 PT Crusier transmission bolts leaking

john_142

I was told by a Chrysler dealer that the bolts for the automatic transmission on my 2005 PT cruiser are leaking fluid because they are stripped. When I asked how they got stripped I was told that normal street driving vibration and bumps stripped the bolts, They did something to the bolts to temporarily seal the leaks but they said I would eventually need a new transmission. This sounds like nonsense to me. Normal driving strips the transmission bolts?? Anyone have any comments?

PF_Flyer

I guess it's possible that normal vibration can work a bolt loose, although it seems that if the bolts were installed and tightened up to spec, that it would be very unlikely. Did you buy the car new or used? Was there ever work done on the transmission where the bolts were loosened? More supposing, but if the bolts were not tightened up to the right spec, I could understand that happening over time. I had some engine work done on a tractor, and a bolt on a carb eventually worked its way loose and stripped out. When driving, we're pretty well shielded from the vibrations of the drive train, but there is a fair amount of shaking going on.

Ever have any work done on the transmission? If you bought the car used, that opens the possibility for bolts that might not have been re-tightened properly at some point, which could open the door to things working their way loose.

Just trying to think of possibilities since under normal conditions, this would seem to be a very rare occurrence

thecardoc3

Do you know which bolts had fluid leaking past them and can you get a photo of them and post them?

Not all shops and techs are equal and there are a lot of senior techs who have skills developed over the years that allow them to work around problems like threads that have failed very efficiently. I'm not buying the idea that vibration from years of use had anything to do with this issue, but this could be from a very normal cause. Corrosion from dissimilar metals is far more likely to have caused the threads to fail. This is usually discovered when a bolt that needs to be removed for routine service takes the threads with it. This is no-one's fault, it's just something that happens. Now the question becomes one of how to deal with it and the answer is "it depends."

Typical solutions can be to drill out the affected bolt holes and simply rethread oversize, or install heli-coils. Alternative solutions like studding the failure allowing for a nut to be installed instead of using the original bolt take more creativity. It's possible that what was done to "temporarily" resolve the issue might be along those lines and may even serve as a competent solution.

So to judge the likeliness of success we need to know the exact bolts involved and be able to see the transmission case where the leak was occurring. Are the bolts just clamping the bottom pan to the transmission or another component? Are the bolt holes blind in the case or do they go all the way through a flange surface?