When I recently had to replace leaking transmission cooler lines I opted to change out the pan to the metal one at the same time. Starting to regret messing with that.

I ordered the metal pan from Advanced Factors and based on several forum discussions went with the Fel-Pro gasket which is metal with a rubber bead around the inside. Had a local garage do the swap out and noticed a leak from the pan as soon as I got it back. Went back in and had the bolts tightened up a bit more as they had went with the plastic pan torque specs. While it reduced the leaking I still had a weep from two corners and one spot around a bolt. Garage indicated that they had difficulty getting a torque wrench on some of the hard to reach bolts so went by feel. In hopes that ensuring a proper torque would solve the issue was back in again today, dropping the cross member and engine shield for access. Bolts were already at spec of the metal pan so that wasn't going to solve anything.

I had brought a new Fel-Pro gasket with me and speaking with the mechanic and comparing it to the black duraprene gasket that had come with the pan, we opted to try out the black gasket. The Fel-Pro seemed to have very little material on the interior side of the bolt holes and the raised rubber bead looked like it would not match up well with the raised bead on the pan. As I had done two drain and fills the first time I guess this third one in two weeks will really assist it getting the majority of the old fluid out.

The most challenging part was switching out the mechatronic loom seal. They had missed doing it the first time so we did it today. That sucker is tough to seat. Tried using a breaker bar to pry against it to no avail, could not get the lock to slide back up. Read a thread where they used a 27mm socket against it and pry against that. While ultimately successful at the same time the lock finally slid up there was a crack from the loom seal. Split it right up to the first oring. On second look it would seem that 27mm was the wrong size as instead of the socket resting against the inner bevel, it rested on a ridge prior to it, the pressure forced the socket in to the bevel causing the fracture. We then replaced the 3 oring seals on the old loom seal with those from the new fractured one. Still a real pain to get in but had success with using a 1" socket inserted inside it and leveraging on that.

Now to watch over the next couple days to see if a leak develops from the new gasket and fingers crossed that re-using the old loom seal with the new orings doesn't cause a leak of its own.

Vehicle only has 135K KM / 83K Miles but is an 07. Probably would have been fine not to mess with a pan changeout when I wasn't having any issues. Having read up on the process extensively before having it done, I was surprised to have an issue with the Fel-Pro gasket, as the leak stories all seem to be associated with the fiber gaskets.

 

I went with the duraprene from the start since i heard a lot of stories about leaking pans, happy to say that even after dropping the pan 2 years later to rebuild the valve body i reused the gasket and its still bone dry, there is enough room to get a 1/4 torque wrench to all the bolts if you come in from the right angle.

 

They did not use any of the original plastic pan bolts, correct?

 

No, did not use the old bolts. Used the shorter ones that came with the metal pan.

It's been 27hrs and so far no leak from either the gasket or loom seal. Things are looking positive. I just spent some time re-installing the heat shield bracket. Had held off incase we needed to go back in. Had to cut a few mm off one bolt on the drivers side due to drive shaft interference trying to get it threaded and the same for the passenger side above the fill hole for something in the way there. Also cut notches into the bracket on the drivers side so it could be slipped over the pre started bolts. Heat shield will go on tomorrow if all stays dry.