a buddy of mine got stuck in a mud hole tonight. he was really stuck. I tried pulling him out unsuccesfully for about 20 minutes. I got the engine and the tranny pretty reved up trying to pull him out. I was giving off every 5 seconds or so if nothing happened to let it cool. anyway, we finally pulled him out with the help of an f250, (he was that stuck) but out of curiosity, i went to check my transmission fluid to see if it smelt burnt, and it did. It ran fine on the way home, but im not sure how much life it has left. How long does it usually go for after a hard run? I'm afraid to change the fluid because I don't want to completely mess it up. then i'd be screwed. I definatley don't have enough money to buy a rebuilt transmission, so what are my options on prolonging the life of this thing.

 

Did your trans temp light come on?

 

If the fluid smells burnt it has lost some/much of its lubricating properties. You need to change the fluid sooner rather than later.

 

But I wouldnot do a flush.. It has been proven time and time again that flushing a damaged tranny will kill it almost instantly. Dont ask why, but for some reason they can run for a very long time when damaged with the bad fluid, but as soon as you flush.. death

 

Definately change it. If you leave it that'll be why you'd need to buy a new trans. Whatever damage you did is already done, but if you leave burnt fluid in there it wont properly lubricate as stated above, and just end up causing more damage.

 

I suggest reading up on the info on gadgets site.. http://www.gadgetonline.com/TransFlush.htm

I am not sure of the effect of just draining the pan, but have to imagine its similar...

I would go talk to a shop... but did you ever get the A/T Temp light?? If not you might not have gotten it as hot as you think...

 

if it smells burnt you oughta replace it.

 

I would still be careful on that.... its a sure way to kill a already dead tranny.... have a tranny shop look at it...

 

yea, i have heard a lot about replacing transmission fluid and then right after it goes bad. Thats why I was a bit skeptical. No i didn't get the trans light come on. So maybe your right, it wasn't as bad. I took it to the tranny shop today and their flushing it right now. hopefully it won't destroy it, but if it does, its probably about ready to go anyway. 160,000 miles is almost there.

 

I was having some intermittent problems and had it done on one of those machines that hooks into your cooler lines going into the radiator that supposedly flushes and adds new fluid with additives. I haven't had a single issue since then. That was about 15K miles ago.

 

happy to say that I took the risk, and so far, it made it home. transmission hasnt failed yet. it was so dirty that they needed to flush it two times. i also got the fuel injectors cleaned while it was in the shop.

 

Good deal, I hope it works out for the best... These trannys are known to last a lot longer than 160K, with propper fluid maintence.

 

For next time, you can save a bit of money by doing the flush yourself. It also gives you a chance to pull the tranny pan and clean the filter before putting your new fluid in there (not sure if the shop that's doing yours cleaned the filter or not...) I've got quite a bit of information here on how to do it yourself.