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Tranmission Dead??? Help

966 views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  harriso1973 
#1 ·
I was driving to work the other morning, when the car seemed to slip out or reverse (sorry I forgot, it's auto, 130k). Well I thought nothing of it and drove to work. I started to notice that I was losing acceleration, it gradually got worse and worse until finally I pulled onto a side street. It just about managed to complete it's U-turn before saying "No more". I sat there and worried, tried switching between all the gears, both forward and reverse. didn't want to move. I stopped and wondered what the hell I was going to do since it was 5:30am, very cold and not exactly a nice area of town. I decided to abandon ship and find a taxi to work. While I was waiting for the Taxi I had the car running to keep me warm, I started to smell oil so I got out to find the tranny had dumped its oil all over the street. At which point I switched it off! I am pretty sure it is shot, unless by some miracle someone says otherwise. So i have decided to tackle changing it myself, but after looking over the haynes manual getting a bit overwhelmed. How hard is it to change? does anyone know of those really helpfull links. How much approx to get someone to do it?
The thing that is the icing on the cake for me is the fact that I nearley traded it for an 01 Viggen convert. with 50k and I thought "no, for once in my life I would be sensible with money and stay with what I had". Not happy about that one!:x :cry:
 
#2 ·
You might be lucky. Most likely a transmission cooler line failed, and you pumped all of the precious fluid out onto the street. If you repair the leak and refill the transmission, you could be lucky enough to have everything all right. What was happening, when you started noticing symptoms, was that fluid was leaking, pressure was dropping, and the clutch packs were subsequently getting inadequate pressure to function properly. If you pushed it too hard, you may very well have cause some damage by letting things slip far more than they were ever intended to do, but you won't know for sure until you refill and test.
 
#4 ·
harriso1973 said:
... my wife is trying to get me to buy something realible "like this nice ford focus", sometimes I just think she never gets it :confused: .
I know what you mean. My lovely bride is not a car person, having owned a series of perfectly functional but boring vehicles over the years, while I have thoroughly enjoyed a string of quirky cars with some of their attendant weaknesses. Consider yourself lucky, as I do, that you don't have to satisfy some whiner griping, "If you really loved me, you'd by me a Jag," thereby saving you fun-car dollars for yourself. Good luck with the tranny.
 
#5 ·
Good news, I think. I took Dabrigs advice (thanks). And refilled the tranny with oil, started her up for about 10 seconds and turned her off again. I ran round and stuck my head under the front to see a new pool of tranny oil all over the floor. So I repeat the process, but this time enlist the help of my wife to start and stop the car, while I peer underneath to see where the oil is coming from. The source was the lower cooling hose wher it attaches to the tranny, so bright spark had over tightened it and stripped the thread. I drained the tranny completely and no bits of anything in the oil I hope is a good sign. The only problem I have now is what the hell am I going to do with a stripped thread in the tranny? The only thing I can think is to use a thread insert or something. Hopefully the tranny will be okay (please, please be okay after main dealer quoted $2200 with my discount:roll: , it should be $4800 just for the tranny) Advice greatly appreciated.
 
#6 ·
Well success was the verdict, touch wood. I drilled out the tranny, inserted a helicoil insert and everything is going well :D . Sorry for the delay in the update. It wasn't that bad of a job, the only thing was it was a scary drilling my tranny, knowing that one snag would kill any chance I had of fixing it. Thanks dabrig, you gave me hope and the answer!
 
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