I was out in the garage today and since I never take my 2008 Redline for drives in bad weather, I decided to start her up for the first time in about 3 weeks to let the battery charge back up a bit (we've had a pretty cold and icy winter where I am, so I thought this would be a good thing to do).

After it had been running for about 10 minutes, I decided to look underneath the car. I did this on instinct because about 1 month ago, I had noticed oil underneath the engine area and after taking her into the dealership fearing the worst, I learned that I had apparently misplaced the inner oil filter gasket (not the one that comes with filters) which I guess caused some oil to escape. I'm not sure how I did that but that's what the tech said and I believe the guy because he's always been straight with me and solved the issues I've dealt with.

Anyway, fast-forward to today (about 1 month since the dealership visit) and I see a minor amount of oil leakage underneath after the car had been running for about 10 minutes. I'd say it may have been a puddle around the size of a quarter? I can't say whether the oil was there before starting her up but I know that the day after I made the dealership visit, I remember looking underneath the car to see if any leaks were apparent and I remember seeing none.

I got underneath the car to see if I could find anything obvious. I think saw oil seeping through the two connectors of the black hoses in the image below (seen from the driver's side):



I say this because those two hoses were the only places I could wipe off and then come back to a few minutes later to see a little glistening around the area where the black rubber hose connects / inserts into the metal clasp (the middle arrows).

As someone who knows very little about cars in general, what are these hoses?

I wiped everything down to clean everything off so that when I come back out in the morning, I might be able to see better where any oil might be coming from. If I see more oil tomorrow, I'm going to schedule another visit to the dealership to let them know what I'm seeing as soon as the weather gets good enough to drive in. I'm also a little concerned about mice possibly doing something as I've seen some scat in the engine area where I think they've hid out to keep warm. They've been known to chew through things here in the Midwest--little jerks. Ha!

Any insights into this would be appreciated.

Where do those hoses go to? Is it an automatic?

Hi, shabby. It's really hard for me to say where they go or where they come from because the ramps I have get the car just high enough to wedge my body under it enough to see some things. I think they come from the oil pan but I'm not sure where they lead. I know they go from there back toward the rear of the car and I think it might be the catalytic converter they enter into? And my car is an automatic. These lines don't appear to go into the transmission.

My naive idea is that it's some sort of oil pressure line leading from the drain pan to something toward the back. Does the catalytic converter even use oil in any way? If so, I think it's going into it but I'm not sure. What I do know is that the leak only appears to happen when the car is running.

I've been paranoid that I might also have a minor rear seal leak, too. I say this because I can sometimes see a little luster around the seal crevice where the engine and tranny bond--it's almost unnoticeable but I got a quote for that to have an idea about what it would cost to fix it if it turns out to be an issue and it sounds like it might be around $1,000, which sucks but hey, I love my car and I'll do that if I need to but I'm not going to cross that bridge until I know for a fact that it needs that work to be done to it. Right now, I think the immediate thing is this hose issue. And right now, I think it's mostly the line with the green arrows that's leaking the most and it only happens when the car is running. Probably going to get her looked at first week of February to be safe.

Scratch the cat idea--way off... After looking at things on Google, I'm betting the line goes to the rear differential. Maybe that sounds right?

No pipes go to the rear diff.

Presuming that pic is from behind the driver-side front wheel, those pipes would be directly below the oil filter. It could be that your leak is leftover from your old filter gasket leak, or from the same thing again (dripping down).

By the way, I'm guessing those pipes ARE going to the transmission. I have a manual, and don't see those pipes on my car.

Thanks, TS. I think you and shabby are 100% correct about the transmission lines because I just spoke to the guy I take my car to at my local dealership and he said the same thing. Sorry for thinking otherwise.

But that being said, I'm going to take her in and get those lines replaced. It's not leaking much at all so I think I'm going to hold off until February.

Just out of curiosity, and on a somewhat related note, my car has about 62k on it. It's an '08 Redline automatic. I've read some posts on here about people wondering about whether they should have their transmission fluid changed around 50k and some said yes. Do you guys think this might be a good time to do that for mine?

If the hoses are coming off, the car is in the air and you are going to loose a bunch of fluid anyways, why not just get it done. Piece of mind and nothing to worry about for the near future.

Hard to argue with that. Yeah, I think I will.

I think automatics have a pair of fluid lines going from the transmission to the transmission oil cooler which will be near the radiator (and look like a small radiator).
If you put something (like cookie sheet that’s seen better days) under the car to capture the fluid, you could be more certain. ATF is different than motor oil. IIRC, it smells worse, but usually looks cleaner. As suggested, fluid leaks sometimes drip from other items, find their way to lines like these, then run down the lines to the lowest point. You could put a couple of band-aids around the lines a few inches up to see.

Thanks for the idea, Flashy. I just might do that.

Just an update to this (in case anyone like me who knows little about these things would happen to come across this thread): Those were transmission cooler lines. Both were leaking (maybe broke due to extreme cold winter temps?). I got them replaced through the dealership. I can't remember how much it cost me--I'm away from my paperwork and can't remember things to save my soul--but I think parts + labor wound up being around $3-400 for about 2-3 hours worth of work. Yeah, that price sucks, I know, especially for someone that knows what they're doing who could've done it on their own...but given what the fix represented to me and given it would stop the horrible smell of burning transmission fluid, I gladly paid it and would do it a thousand times over to avoid that ever happening again.

Hope this helps and thanks everyone for the information you provided me with.