Hi guys,
Well I have an 04 Aveo that has me to the point of break. I tried searching several forums and no info seems to be out there. I'll start with what I have done, originally I thought I had a bad engine oil leak but now I'm thinking it was the torque converter seal all along. I removed the transmission and the flex plate. I found that the Rear Main seal had walked out a bit and was rubbing on the back side of the flex plate. I wasn't sure what would have cause this so I thought maybe engine vibration? Through out my search I ran across the Timing belt thread and the pulleys breaking. the car has over 150k miles and no record of a timing belt change so I removed the upper cover and noticed the belt was worn so decided to replace that as well. I ordered all my parts from RockAuto as they were by far the cheapest and had the best selections. I replaced all parts as per instructions on this forum and the car started great with no issues however the Torque converter was a bear to seat properly. I literally drove the car 2 miles and the trans fluid came gushing out. So I figured i may have damaged the T/C seal during install pulled the trans again and installed a new seal from oriellys same seal from rock auto its a National 223830. After the replacement went for a test drive and same thing now I'm getting frustrated on a whim I called Autozone they use a Timkin seal same part number and it felt better built so I installed that seal and low and behold no dice same issues. After several reads on the internet and transmission manual downloads I was sure it was a metal clad seal that was bad. Well long story short I found a used transmission with around 67k for a steal of a price so I decided to go that route replaced the seals reinstalled it tonight and initially thought I had fixed it well after a trip up the canyon bam smoke everywhere. The same issues I am at a breaking point and not sure what to think anymore. The only things really left are the Harmonic Balancer and or Flex Plate, both parts seem to be good though. So I decided to join the forum and ask for help or see if theres is any advice out there on what else I could check. Thanks in advance and sorry about the long read.