T5 Leak - Drain plug crack

jpctln

New Member
Jun 1, 2004
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StL, MO
As some of you know I switched out my clutch last weekend and refilled the tranny. Well I've had a small fluid leak over the past few days, and today I decided to get under there and have a look. I thought it was just the new fluid leveling itself out still, but that was not the case. I saw that the tiny leak had been coming from the drain plug, which confused me, because I used teflon on it. I tightened the drain plug even more until it was recessed into the spout a few milimeters, and noticed the leak starting to flow more right before my eyes. I found out it was coming from a hairline crack in the casing on the drain plug snout, that had just been widened as a result of tightening the plug further. I loosened the plug, cleaned off the leak, and spackled the small crack with JB weld as quick as I could, and added a couple more layers later. The leak has seemed to stop for now, but I was wondering if this is anything I should be concerned about? It seems as if there are cracks all along the underside of the tranny, not leaking cracks but just surface cracks. Can anything be done to prevent them (besides tightening bolts too much :p)...will the crack spread?