Just brought the wife's 88 244 Sedan Auto to the tranny shop to diagnose a problem with leaking fluid...a lot of it.

First off let me say I'm a DIYer but I'm busy flipping our rental over, and trying to live a little this summer, so I loath being under the car for 2 hours doing the job myself. And yes I brought this on myself. =-D

Anyway loosing a lot of fliud at 173,000. I figured it was the seal / bushing for the output shaft. I was right on that (thank you brickboard) but the mechanic told me that there is an 80% chance that I also might have a problem with a bushing further forward in the trans, which would require dropping the tranny and fixing.

He told me that there is a lot of play in the driveshaft...which seems to be the reason why we all know to replace the seal / bushing. He didn't try to convince me to do this, but was very adamant that I might find replacing the bushing and seal a futile effort. In his words, "you might find it leaking just as much driving out of the parking lot after we repair it."

OK, so my questions. Is this just a disclaimer by trans guy that if he fixes it and down the road it leaks to cover himself? Was he trying to scare me into spending hundreds (thousands?) of dollars more? Or is this a sincere worry that I might not be able to fix the leak by the very common procedure of installing new bushing / seal?

I've read nothing about doing this work and not fixing the problem (pending that the DIYer screws something up). I've spoken with multiple shops that say they just do the bushing / seal and it is "usually" cleared up.

What should I think? Trans shifts great, not slipping, never run low on fluid since we've owned her. All in all the car is built, as we say, like a brick. No other problems with the rig but soon to be new ball joints.

What do you all say?

Thanks for the reply,

Sincerely hoping I know this answer