I have a 98 Saturn SL1. I e replaced my filter 3 times. When I shut the car off it leaks from the transmission filter. There are no cracks or dings where the filter screws on. It makes like a suction sound and that's when it starts leaking.

 

Could be you're putting it on too tight. Sounds to me like your seal is leaking. Get another filter, remove the old one and clean the mounting surface. Spin the new one on and and once it's snug, tighten it like an oil filter. Another 1/2 to 3/4 turn and see what happens. If it's not that, then I can't tell you what to do.

 

Have you triple checked you are using the correct filter?

 

Sorry for the huge font
Don't know what that's about. I'm not yelling

 

I also have a 1998 saturn and my filter came off a few months after I had a filter and trans change, I assumed it was not tightened correctly.I had to take it in and have all things done again.
Wish I never changed that trans filter and trans oil.

Some time later a long time later, I was driving and the trans shut down and all the liquid was all over, I could not find the filter though I looked. He put on another and filled it up , different tech person.
Then I noticed trans fluid under the trans last week and it caused me to join this forum again, and this time I towed it back to previous guy. it was lose and he tightened it and added a quart of fluid.
My trans has 232K miles and is on its last leg because it is shifting so hard into 3rd sometimes second it is unbearable. but I keep driving it. the mechanic thinks that the fluid pressure and hard knock shifting is causing the filter to loosen. He said it took way too long for the quart of trans fluid to go in.
I would be very interested in what you found out , if you had a hard shifter, and anyones thoughts on this
Once on the highway and into gear, the car rides great, it is so rough on the shift that it is hopefully going to last a few weeks and that is it. like I said, it shifts into first good , if I rode around in first it would be okay ..... the scary thing is when I am driving and the Trans
starts shifting hard on its own, like bam bam bam....... then it stops and drives.

I wish I could know someone could pull the pan down and tighten a screw and be done. Probably selonoids, and that is more than I can spend looking at 1200 to get a new trans. I wish I could donate to a school that would like to go at the trans for educational learning.

 

Accessing the valve body on this transmission is not that difficult.

Measure the resistance of each of the solenoids in the valve body and report here. Make sure you keep track of which solenoid came from which position in the valve body. Each serves a particular function so we are trying to determine If the symptoms you report are related to a particular solenoid and if that solenoid measures in spec.

The procedure for accessing and measuring the resistance is posted on the forum, likely as a sticky.

 

HI I hope this gets to you I have not done this before. You write Accessing the valve body is not difficult? remember I am Sue not Sam. is this something a transmission shop can do? I once looked at a saturn video of getting to a selonoid to replace the selonoid and it was really involved ..... if it is not that difficult / reachable from the bottom by taking off the pan?
sometimes the car shifts fine and then it shifts so hard your BP rises. On the highway, it has not had those kicks once in gear. sometimes there are 3 kicks at once. if this was a simple internal adjustment that would be great.

I think maybe I should try a school skill center. let them have it ,,,, point where more money into it is hard,

 

You don't have to drop the pan to access the valve body in this transmission.

I'm not sure if the video you were looking at was for a Saturn, but this transmission, you access The solenoids in the valve body from the top near the firewall by the driver side.

Rube, would you be kind enough to explain the process to this fine upstanding woman?

Don't sell yourself short. The fact that you are on this forum repeatedly asking questions puts you ahead of 75% of all people. With the cost of repairs absolutely absurd at this point in time, learning how to do things like this means you don't have to pay obscene labor charges and you don't have to pay more for parts. Don't get me wrong, mechanics have to make a living. But the more you learn, the more you enable yourself to learn more.

 

I'm sorry, derf, but it's been several years since I had a Saturn and did this do. I honestly don't remember much about it and will be absolutely useless with information. Sorry about that, but the old brain doesn't remember much that happened in the past 20 years. I DO NOT recommend brain surgery for anyone unless it's a matter of life or death, like my situation was. If I'd been single, I wouldn't have had it done.