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Taking it from the top:
I bought the car a couple of weeks ago, about 700 miles ago at this point.
At the time of purchase there were no indications of transmission issues (no leaks, no driveability issues).
The transmission fluid was discolored (brown) so I decided to do a flush. I did not drop the pan, I just removed the cooler line and pumped it out while adding synthetic ATF back in.
Everything went well, car shifted fine and I thought I was home free.
About a week later I took it on a 500 mile road trip and 400 miles into it I smelled ATF when I exited the vehicle. Being in a hurry and caught up in some other things I forgot about it and continued on my way.
About 50 miles later I’m getting on a highway and notice the transmission shift into overdrive well before it should have, making my entrance to the highway rather sluggish and difficult.
About 3 miles later while driving about 80mph the engine starts revving up as I notice that hitting the accelerator pedal is no longer moving the car forward, just revving the engine. At this time I also notice a whirring/whining noise from the transmission that was not there before.
I coast 2 miles (that part was incredible) and make it to a commuter lot off the highway where I check the bottom of the car and see the ATF from front to back, starting around the bell housing.
I check the transmission dipstick and it is dry so I have my sister bring me 4 quarts of ATF (not synthetic).
I add 2 quarts blindly in a snowstorm at night with a funnel made out of a sheet of paper (why couldn’t the dipstick tube be a couple inches longer!?!?!).
I pull the dipstick and all I can tell is that it is wet, I have no idea what the level is.
I get in the car, start it up, and it lurches a few feet forward with no detectable slipping.
I think we’ve cheated transmission death and pile everyone into the car to head out. But on my second attempt when I put it into Drive I get no forward motion at all, just that whirring/whining noise again.
We get a ride with my sister and I have the car towed to my house.
At my house I can see that the 2 quarts actually overfilled the transmission quite a bit but it’s hard to tell exactly how much when you can’t drive it to warm it up.
I disconnect the cooler return line and pump a quart of ATF out. It smells good, not burnt and it seems to pump at the same rate I’m used to seeing when I flush my transmissions.
I decide to put the car and drive and get a look underneath to see what is turning and what is not. But as soon as I put it in drive, it wants to go. This is not a blown transmission I think to myself.
I get in and put it in Reverse which works great, back out of my garage and then put it in Drive. Everything works great, no slipping, no whining. That lasted about 50 yards. The whining started to return and when I stopped and put it in Reverse I got nothing, no motion at all. I put it back in Drive and it hesitated, then engaged so I circled around and put it back in the garage. By the time I got back to the garage I had no motion in any gear, the trip was about 200 yards.
I do some searching on Brickboard and find thread where someone suggested that a whining transmission is a clogged filter that is starving the pump of ATF.
I decide to pull the pan (why did they put the dipstick tube on the side of the pan!?!?!) which does not appear to have been removed in quite some time.
Inside I find a filter that is clogged up with various small particles that do not appear to be clutch seals, more like an orangeish color. The magnet in the bottom of the pan is covered in a mushy paste that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a long time. None of the particles are bigger than a few micron, they feel like powder.
Today I ordered a new filter/pan gasket that will be here tomorrow.
I very much doubt this transmission is toast, none of the fluid smells any different than the day I put it in and I don’t see any evidence of clutch seal pieces in the pan. I also have never seen a bad transmission that worked sometimes and not others, it’s either toast or not, there’s no intermittently burned up transmissions.
I think the new filter will fix it but now I’m wondering about that ATF all over the bottom of the car and even a bit on the firewall. I think the ATF must have come out the vent/overflow because I don’t think a front seal could start leaking at such a volume in such a short period of time. Any idea if a clogged filter can cause ATF to be purged out of the transmission?
I figure that the back pressure created by the clogged filter could possibly cause this condition and I’m willing to give it a shot before pulling the transmission.
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