So I am driving on a long sweeping wide exit ramp and acceerate in the turn. The car downshifted to 3rd and all of a sudden I hear this grinding noise from the tranny. I let off the gas and continue to hear a whining noise for a few seconds. I came to a stop light and thought I just blew the transmission. As I accelerate away from the light casually everything seems normal. It shifts smoothly and seems OK. After 5 min with nothing seemingly wrong, I hit the gas and it downshifts normally, and up shifts again with no problems. Still I am nervous.

I park the car for the night and the next morning I leave and notice several drops of red fluid on the ground. I drive slowly about 18 miles to a friends house and stay there for 5 hours. When I leave I notice no fluid on the ground there at all. On the way home I accelerated again around a curve (not gunning it mind you, but it did downshift one gear) and heard another grinding noise and immediately let up on the gas. The car continued to drive normally after I let up on the gas . It doesn't shutter or make any noise in a straight line and shifts smoothly. This morning there was again several drops of red fluid (I'm assuming transmission fluid) on the ground under the car.

I plan on taking it to a Ponitac dealer today but I am wondering if anyone knows what this may have been or is? Obviously something is wrong because of the grinding and fluid loss. I was going to check the level but I had no time or fluid to add and no tools at the time to take off the air box. 3 months ago I had the tranny fluid replaced. Everything has been fine since then. My GXP has 61,000 miles on it. Any thoughts would be appreciated. One person I talked with here at work said something about a bearing being bad. Could that be a cause?

:? i'll wait for a gearhead to chime in, but possibly a tranny mount?