Patent ID: 8157105

Claim:
An oil strainer for an automatic transmission, comprising: a body including a lower wall, an upper wall and an inside space defined between the lower and upper walls; a filter substantially horizontally disposed within the body so as to divide the inside space of the body into a lower space section defined between the lower wall and the filter and an upper space section defined between the upper wall and the filter; an outlet port provided on the upper wall of the body and communicated with the upper space section; and an inlet port provided on the lower wall of the body and communicated with the lower space section, the inlet port having an upper opening that is exposed to the lower space section, wherein the lower wall includes a first area in which an inlet port periphery defining the upper opening of the inlet port is disposed, and a second area separate from the first area in which the second area is disposed below the outlet port in a vertical direction of the oil strainer, wherein the first area containing the inlet port periphery is disposed to be opposed to the filter in a vertical direction of the oil strainer, and wherein a first spaced vertical distance extends between the filter and the first area of the lower wall, a second spaced vertical distance extends between the filter and the second area of the lower wall, and the first vertical distance is smaller than the second vertical distance, and wherein an entire portion of the second area disposed directly below the outlet port in the vertical direction of the oil strainer is spaced from the filter at least by the second vertical distance.