Help me find another leak (this feels like its kinda my thing now a days)

So I think i know where its coming from, it's the electrical harness for the tiptronic trans (right above the pan towards the motor) What im trying to figure out is how to fix the leak. Has anyone fixed this leak without buying the 500-700$ harness? Looks to be a couple of O rings and a metal clip to retain it in place. the outside simply unscrews from the trans. looking up from the front drivers side of tans pan. ive already removed the connector, Its completely soaked. the connector, simple screw off. looking into the harness. Here is the part i belive: looks like i will need to drop the pan (again ) to release the clip to put in new O rings? another image of the internal connection: you can see the backside of the metal clip and the white O rings.

It appears to me that the clip is outside the transmission, and possibly just keeps the electrical fitting from rotating or pushing back into the transmission case.. Looking at the photo of the connector it appears it's installed from the inside of the transmission housing (requiring the pan to be dropped) and then the clip goes on it externally keeping it from rotating and pushing back into the transmission. To replace the two O rings - pan and clip removal will be needed. Good time to change the fluid, and if the pan uses a gasket - to replace that gasket. BTW - a favor to ask.. those are great photos you've provided, adequately illustrating the problem area.. but they're a bit large. Two of them are almost 2,000 pixels wide. For use on a webpage, you can usually get more than adequate resolution at 1024 pixels wide. A quick way to do this on a Windows PC is with Irfanview - a marvelous freeware image editing tool. I typically crop out extraneous parts of the image, then resize it so the horizontal dimension is 1024 pixels. Using 2,000 horizontal pixel images will end up slowing load times, especially if someone is using a 4G phone or a slower internet connection, especially if you have multiple images in the posting.. Just asking.. Let us know how it works out. And please do list the year/model of your 987 in the thread - there are differences year to year and model to model. Good luck!

Sure, ill try to resize them before i post. This is a 2007 Cayman S Tiptronic 144K miles. How do i setup a signature for this info? Thats a good point about it being fitted from the inside. Ill need to look closely at it again from underneath. I have dropped the pan a total of 3 times now, thinking my leak was an issue with my gasket or something i did. I took it to my mechanic and he quickly pointed out the wet connector and said its a common issue with BMW 's and porsches. I saw some videos and some models of BMW 's the plastic housing gets replaced with new O rings and its a -20$ part. Looks like this piece is an entire unit with wire harness. I did find a photo from when i first dropped the pan the first time and i did get a decent angle of the connector from the inside , i cant tell if the clip is internal or external. this weekend ill jack it up again and clean it up and see if i can tell from the outside. the o - rings are also a pain to find. it seems that they are special order from most online stores. Im hoping i can find a local store that can help me match up the o-rings if i bring them in.

Take dimensions of the grove the O rings fit into. They're being used in a compression fit situation, so given the width and depth of the grove, then the diameter of the grove, the ID and OD of the O-rings, and finally the thickness of the O ring(s) - there are on-line guides that will help you find the correct ones. The ones they used appear to be white - so those might be high-temperature nylon based O-rings. I'd suggest perhaps trying Viton O rings, they're generally good with temperature and are resistant to most chemicals (like ATF.) And to add a signature to your posts.. Step 1: Step 2: Easy peasy..

Don, thanks.. yea the more i look at the photos the more im convinced you are correct about the clip. thanks for the advice on the 0-ring too

found a youtube video that shows how it disconnects: youtube so yes that clip is external, drop the pan, pop the clip (hoping i dont need to unbolt the valve body) and then replace the o-rings.

Great! How about taking a few photos when you do the job and perhaps we can add another DIY to our library of DIY articles? Thanks!

Completed the gasket swap. i ended up ordering at the dealership. Didn't want to have to drop the pan and then go hunt a set down. Here are the steps I did: O-Ring part number (you will need 2 of them about 15$ a piece) 98639701700 Lift car up level so you can properly do the trans fill procedure after you are done unbolt the rear sway bar and let hang. 4 bolts open fill port so the when you open the drain bolt it doesn't glug and splash everywhere remove drain plug and catch it with a fairly large container (i would guess a little more than 5 quarts) remove drain pan torx bits its going to drip for a long time so just keep the collection bin under it. clean gasket surface twist the wiring harness bundle to unscrew it from the transmission, very easy to twist off. remove the retainer clip on the wiring harness. You will need a flathead to push it away from the trans body and then a pair of needle nose pliers to grab it and pull it off. push harness body into valve pan area, it will squeeze inside and hang down without unbolting the valve body remove gaskets (my original ones were white, the replacement ones are a speckled red) push harness back into place, put clip back on. probably a good time to replace the filter I just followed the pelican parts trans fluid/filter change procedure for the rest: Pelican instructions So far so good. I don't have a leak on my driveway yet. it still all looks dry around the pan and the connection part.

Thanks much to @eruji for this outstanding thread. I've moved the DIY part out to it's own thread, and will close this thread (but leave it in place and reference it from the DIY thread! ) Great work! On behalf of Planet-9 and all the members - thank you! The new DIY thread: Outstanding Tech Contribution! - Replacing the sealing...