96 SW1 ruptured transmission

Hi. I would appreciate the group's advice about this.... My 96 SW1
(60K miles) began to have a whining noise yesterday. I looked under
the hood, saw nothing, drove it some more, then noticed that the
tranny fluid was running onto the ground. I had it towed to a Saturn
dealer near me. So I have two questions:

1) What is the likely cause of this? Note the low mileage on this car.

2) I drove the car about 75 miles after the noise started. I now
realize I was hearing the sound of the gears since they were not
getting adequate lubrication. But there was still some fluid in there,
since it was still running out when I stopped for good. How much major
damage was done? If I get the leaked fixed, is this transmission still
OK?

TIA,
Chuck C.
Woburn, MA

 

Sounds like the front transmission gasket, the gasket between the
bellhousing and transmission housing. I've heard of these going early on
some toyotas, but not so much on saturns.
If there was still a good amount of fluid in the tranny, it should be good,
but i'm not to famillure with the auto trans, so there may be some parts
that could have been damged because of low fluid.
The service dept. should give it a once over and tell you the condition of
the tranny.

PS. Does anyone know where i can get the drivetrain service manual, not from
the factory, maybe a used copy, like on
http://factoryautomanuals.com/cart/customer/home.php
Thank you

Good Luck
Jeremiah

 

Had a similar leak on my 95 sl1. Thought it was the front seal, but when I
pulled the transmission, I saw a hole had been worn in the case from a pin
that began creeping out of the differential unit. Replaced the
differential, and patched the case with JB weld. Never had any further
problems