Oh dear..... 😕

[GingerMagic]

I was off work last week so I thought I would start the car up and give it a run as I haven't used it for a month or so.

However, all good intentions went to pop as I spotted a substantial leak coming from underneath the car, about a where the pedals are.
I don't know enough about the Volvo, or auto boxes to pinpoint the issue, but to my untrained eye it looks red tranny fluid.

So procrastinating got the better of me and I did some gardening instead..

But seeing as I need to move the car to remove the wheels then I need to ask if it's safe to start and move it about 50 yards just to get them swapped over?

I'll try to attach a picture for convenience sake.

Thanks in advance

[GingerMagic]

Well I've had a few attempts and I can't for the life of me figure out how to invert the picture.
I've even saved it both ways up and they still are upside down - pfft.

[Forrest]

No one is going to be able to tell you reliably whether it is safe to move a car with an unidentified rapid leak.

Are any of the fluid levels looking low? What colour is your coolant? Have you done any recent work that might have disturbed something?

Provided it definitely isn’t petrol, if your oil, coolant, transmission and brake fluid levels are looking OK it should be fairly safe to start the car for long enough to have a look and see where the leak is coming from.

[john.wigley]

'Forrest' is absolutely correct 'G.M.'.

Over a long motoring career, I can count the number of 'leaks' that I have experienced on the fingers of one hand. Fuel, on a 940 as the result of an incorrectly fitted filter; engine oil, on a Saab 9000, near catastrophic when the filter fell off as a result of the wrong one being fitted; coolant and brake fluid on the same 940, when the bottom hose to rad clip failed, and the hose blew off, and a metal brake pipe fractured respectively.

I once had a major ATF leak on a 740, but that was only after the casing had been holed by debris on the M1. That one left me on the hard shoulder to await recovery and necessitated the fitment of a replacement second hand tranny to remedy.

That is all in over half a century; none was - as far as I know - preexisting, all were unexpected. I have never known a car to spring a leak while or through standing, it would almost certainly have been preexisting.

If yours is in fact ATF of the magnitude that you mention, and the car has been standing for an extended period, is it possible that the fluid has drained back down into the casing, only to be ejected under pressure when the engine was eventually restarted? Pure conjecture on my part, but I have never met this situation before. I hope you can soon get to the bottom of it and resolve the problem.

Regards, John.

[Wagon Sailor]

Can't you tow or push the car 50 yards?

[baggy798]

Of course it's safe, do it!

[GingerMagic]

Thank you all.

It's not petrol as it hasn't evaporated, not coolant either so I'm assuming it's ATF only because of the colour and consistency.

Sadly towing isn't an option as I live down the end of a busy one way street, the car is only 50 yards away but to get to my house involves over half a mile of narrowness to get around the block, then faffing about blocking the street to get it on the drive ( all double yellows across my drive )

The car will fire up immediately when it's jump started, I'm not worried about that, it is purely my concerns about the delicacy of the auto box.

I'll move it later today jack the car up once it's on the driveway.

I'll post another upside down picture once I get underneath.