lost all atf
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 466
From: Anchorage.. but currently in Ft. Benning
lost all atf
so i was on the way home today from where my car was parked for a month it had just gotten a new cahall race tranny installed. So i make my way back after several test runs being done on the car and all that. Its a 40 mile drive back here from where it was. So im on the way home and about halfway through the drive i romp on it and immediatley afterwards it started acting funny. The 3200 stall wasnt as jumpy as before or anything. I had never had a stall like this so i wasnt too sure if i was to be concerned or not.. For all i knew this could be part of the breaking in process. So i try to call my dad who is THE master mechanic but he wasnt around to answer the phone. So i continue my drive. Checking all vitals that i could check and monitoring the RPM guage where the needle was bouncing a couple hundred RPMs. So i throw it into neutral and back into drive and floor it. 3k 4k 5k 5.k and almost to 6 k i let off because it wouldent shift into 4th.. After i let off i watched the speedo drop to 70 and i pushed on the gas a little to resume driving but there was nothing there. The rpms reved and i had no pull. So at this point im like GREAT. Im on a highway with nowhere to stop.. Screw it ill make it home somehow. At about 40 mph i tryed again and then it finally started to pull.. Still acting funny i crawled back home where i checked the ATF and it was missing.. WHAT THE HECK COULDA HAPPENED? This happened AFTER i romped on it. How could this tranny lose all its fluid in 15 min? help!
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 12,312
From: Aurora, IL
Did you check all the easy stuff like making sure the trany lines were hooked up and the dipstick tube fully seated in the tranny? If you dumped that much fluid, it should be pretty apparent where it is leaking from.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,634
From: Newark, Delaware
Since this was a fresh install, are you sure you had enough fluid in it from the start? This should've taken around 13-14 quarts total.
Is there any fluid on the ground where the car was sitting?
If it all leaked out while you drove such a short distance, you've got a very large leak!
Do you have a good aftermarket cooler on the car? A stall converter generates much more heat than a stock converter. If the trans. overheats, it'll blow fluid out the vent.
Since we don't know when/where it lost all the fluid yet, the next move should be to get the car jacked up and check for obvious fluid leaks. Check your cooler lines very well.
If you lost that much fluid in such a short time, you should've seen some smoke trailing the car.
You should also see fluid all over the back bumper. A large leak will usually follow a natural aerodynamic flow and cover the rear of the vehicle. So much that on vans it will cover the back window and on trucks it will cover the tailgate.
Let me know what you come up with.
Frank
CPT
Is there any fluid on the ground where the car was sitting?
If it all leaked out while you drove such a short distance, you've got a very large leak!
Do you have a good aftermarket cooler on the car? A stall converter generates much more heat than a stock converter. If the trans. overheats, it'll blow fluid out the vent.
Since we don't know when/where it lost all the fluid yet, the next move should be to get the car jacked up and check for obvious fluid leaks. Check your cooler lines very well.
If you lost that much fluid in such a short time, you should've seen some smoke trailing the car.
You should also see fluid all over the back bumper. A large leak will usually follow a natural aerodynamic flow and cover the rear of the vehicle. So much that on vans it will cover the back window and on trucks it will cover the tailgate.
Let me know what you come up with.
Frank
CPT
Last edited by 12SCNDZ; Feb 25, 2007 at 08:11 PM.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 466
From: Anchorage.. but currently in Ft. Benning
Since this was a fresh install, are you sure you had enough fluid in it from the start? This should've taken around 13-14 quarts total.
Is there any fluid on the ground where the car was sitting?
If it all leaked out while you drove such a short distance, you've got a very large leak!
Do you have a good aftermarket cooler on the car? A stall converter generates much more heat than a stock converter. If the trans. overheats, it'll blow fluid out the vent.
Since we don't know when/where it lost all the fluid yet, the next move should be to get the car jacked up and check for obvious fluid leaks. Check your cooler lines very well.
If you lost that much fluid in such a short time, you should've seen some smoke trailing the car.
You should also see fluid all over the back bumper. A large leak will usually follow a natural aerodynamic flow and cover the rear of the vehicle. So much that on vans it will cover the back window and on trucks it will cover the tailgate.
Let me know what you come up with.
Frank
CPT
Is there any fluid on the ground where the car was sitting?
If it all leaked out while you drove such a short distance, you've got a very large leak!
Do you have a good aftermarket cooler on the car? A stall converter generates much more heat than a stock converter. If the trans. overheats, it'll blow fluid out the vent.
Since we don't know when/where it lost all the fluid yet, the next move should be to get the car jacked up and check for obvious fluid leaks. Check your cooler lines very well.
If you lost that much fluid in such a short time, you should've seen some smoke trailing the car.
You should also see fluid all over the back bumper. A large leak will usually follow a natural aerodynamic flow and cover the rear of the vehicle. So much that on vans it will cover the back window and on trucks it will cover the tailgate.
Let me know what you come up with.
Frank
CPT
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 466
From: Anchorage.. but currently in Ft. Benning
I just had my g/f go out and check out the back and underneath the car.. there is no ATF in that area. There is also nothing that leaked last night... We put in 10 quarts of ATF in the car i was just told by the guy who was helping me and making sure i didnt screw anything up during this whole thing that the fluid pan is shallow and is unable to hold that much ATF he says that much will likely pour out the spout.. When we filled it the dipstick read that 10 was adequate. Did we screw up frank?
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,634
From: Newark, Delaware
I'm confused. Did you put 10 quarts in it when you first installed it? If so, that wasn't enough. It should have taken 13-14 quarts. If you only put 10 in on initial install, you've probably cooked the transmission. It only needs to be 2 quarts low before it won't register on the stick.
If you dumped 10 quarts in it recently, and you're not way over ful on the stick, you've lost alot of fluid.
If you have a leak that severe, you should have a car that's covered with ATF on the underside.
I'm still grasping at the fact that you didn't check the fluid when it first started acting up? "Beating" on the car probably wasn't the best thing to do to it.
Frank
CPT
If you dumped 10 quarts in it recently, and you're not way over ful on the stick, you've lost alot of fluid.
If you have a leak that severe, you should have a car that's covered with ATF on the underside.
I'm still grasping at the fact that you didn't check the fluid when it first started acting up? "Beating" on the car probably wasn't the best thing to do to it.
Frank
CPT
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