Bought a Titanium Gray, 6M, GT Thursday night. After parking it in the driveway the first night, the next morning I noticed a half-dozen oil spots about the size of a fifty-cent piece directly under the rear differential. Drove it today and noticed a distinct smell of hot fluid (?) - not the usual "new car" hot exhaust aroma. I put a piece of cardboard under the rear axle when I got back and sure enough there's five or six new spots there now. Is this normal? Serious? Called the dealer and service was closed. Sales manager simply suggested bringing it in Monday. I know there's differential fluid in there (no, I'm not a mechanical genius...) but not sure just how much. Any thoughts?

BTW - great site. Been reading for about 2 months. Influenced my decision. Don't want to regret it now!

 

Either 1.4 qts or 1.8 qts, one is the tranny the other is the diff, just not sure which. Can't be good if the drain plug is loose, or a cracked housing. I'm sure you'll loose more oil while driving with things under pressure. If you can, check the drain and fill plugs.

 

Thanks for the response. Any idea where those plugs are? The drips are spread out over a 1'x1' or so area. Seems like if it's a plug, they'd all be in pretty much the same spot, no?

 

I would recommend pulling the fill plug (rear of housing) to determine if the diff is under-filled or over-filled.

 

Plenty of pictures of trans and diff in this DIY for fluid change should help:

http://www.5cats.org/rx8/trans_diff_refill/

 

Dealer...

- Irish

 

the trans bolt is in the middle of the car i believe it is facing towards the drivers side. The differrational is behind the exhaust in the middle back of the car. Thats the general area. hope this helps

 

Once again, thanks for all the input. The pictures were very illustrative - thank you, beachdog. I will try to get under there tomorrow to see if I can tell what's going on, but it's tight quarters. What a drag. First weekend with it, and I probably shouldn't drive it... Has this issue come up before?