oh it's dirty brown oil - had a look underneath at the local jiffy lube where the boys wouldn't do any fluid change aside from the coolant. the mechs over there are sort of car enthusiasts with the managers owning german cars (would you believe). anyway we looked underneath and the bell housing bottom was coated back to the tranny pan. it looked like it was coming from the main seal. it's not a gusher yet but there's a 3 inch spot on the floor overnight.

i do hate overfills and keep an electric dispstick siphon from jc whitney handy to make sure that oil level is dead center of the fill range. so this won't be a problem going forward.

btw, please no flames but is it worth trying oil stop leak like STP or CD2 when i change the oil? those things are specifically targeted at older cars where the seals may have shrunk and do not contain solids ("will not harm your engine"). if it swells seals what adverse effect could it have on the rest of the engine?