2010 S40 2.4i, AW55-50SN, 65,000 miles

Daughter's car, she parked it overnight on the street and in the morning, neighbor left a note on the car which said she had a big transmission fluid leak (large puddle, red fluid).

I'm 500 miles away and I can't help, so told her not to drive the car and have it towed to shop.

She says the car drove normally until it was parked. She also says she remembers taking an unexpected dip in the road a little too hard over this past weekend, but car drove normally after that.

Any experience out there with a leaking automatic transmission on a relatively low mileage S40?

UPDATE:

Shop says it's a cracked oil pan. $_Ouch_$

Now, we'll hope there is no internal damage from lack of lubrication once there's an inspection after the pan is removed. Daughter says the low oil pressure light didn't illuminate and no strange noises. Glad she didn't try to drive it to the shop.

Oil on the ground was dark and brown, guessing someone mistook it for dark and red ATF.

That may not be so bad. If your daughter's car has a working oil pressure light, she should be okay. I am of course assuming you mean the engine oil pan. Looking at our V70, the oil pan is fairly easy to get at. Other than that it is the price of the part.

A quick look at one main or rod bearing should tell how they are.

Greg

That is 'good' news. There should be no internal damage. Some Brickboarders have epoxyed cracks with good results.

IPD is having a sale:

http://www.ipdusa.com/products/5947/113839-aluminum-skid-plate-p1-s40-v50-c30

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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Don't even start the engine! She either bottomed out the tranny pan and put a hole in it, or she cracked an ATF cooler line. In either case, this is not a dealer only repair, but she needs to find a reputable shop and have the tranny filled with a good ATF.
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Keeping it running is better than buying new

Someone has to put the eyeball underneath. Maybe there's a damaged tranny cooling line?

I had a broken line once in a 740 and instead of buying an expensive OEM
cooling line, I used a cutter and a flare tool and spliced in a piece of the right size brake line where it was broken (near the radiator). I used a stock brakeline and a compression union to make the splice. I was fortunate to have working room to do it. It was an cheap and easy solution.

Good luck, Bill