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First, a big thanks to all of you who responded to my "transmission dying?" post of Sunday, Oct. 6. After reading the posts, I called my mechanic who had driven my car when it was making noise and not moving well and asked him about the U joint, and rear axle, drive shaft and fluid change as some of you had suggested. He said since the car made noise AND had shifting problems that it was the transmission. Yesterday I took my car to a transmission shop recommended by three separate mechanics in different shops. They said they would drop the pan and diagnose it without charging me.
My car drove beautifully at first (while cold) - I was hoping it had some miraculous cure. After being on the freeway for probably less than 8 minutes and then exiting, the car started making the whining sound again, and soon after didn’t want to shift and wouldn’t move forward easily. I luckily was able to drive with the flashing lights on and made it to the transmission shop, that was probably within about a 5 minute drive. The mechanic said in response to it driving beautifully while it’s cold, but not when it’s warmed up, that it sounded like it could be the filter was clogged. That when the car is off, the filter drains and as it warms up everything circulates and it can be clogged. I left my car with them and went to a meeting.
They found “old” water in with the transmission fluid. And there were rust particles clogging the filter. They cleaned it and replaced the filter. And my car works again – for $98!, which I thought was fantastic compared to the other possibilities I was facing. They want to drop the pan again in 3 months and see if there are more signs of rust, cause they don’t know how much it’s rusting inside my transmission.
I’m wondering if I can just wait til I have symptoms again. Also, are there any reliable products that would protect against the rust or stop it inside the transmission?
How did the water get in the transmission? The possible incident I know of is in April 20, 2000, my radiator leaked and was replaced when my car had almost 82,000 miles. Apparently, water can get in your transmission when that happens. Now it’s Oct. 2002 and my car has almost 98,000. And this was the first time I had any problem with the transmission. (I live in Hawaii). Is there some other way water could have gotten in the transmission?
One weird thing happened while my car was at this shop. The mechanic said that while they were putting the transmission fluid in, they smelled fire and they noticed a fire in my cigarette lighter – that it shorted out. I don’t smoke and the actual lighter part had fallen out a long time ago - (I have the spring and the rest of it somewhere). The inside part and the housing were melting. So when I returned to this shop, I received a small plastic bag with these various parts in them. One that’s really melted, might have been a bulb. So far everything else in the car seems to work - the radio, lights, etc. They said they checked it out and changed a fuse or something. How did that happen? Did they do something wrong? or can that sort of thing spontaneously happen?
Thanks again for your help. This is a great list and service
Aloha,
Katalina
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