Smoke, blown line...Is tranny ruined?

[Brian]

On Friday night (13th) I was driving up a hill when my engine started working extra hard and the RPMs were going up w/o an increase (or maintaining) of vehicle speed. It was like I was running it too fast in a low gear. I tried slowing down, but it didn't help. I pulled over, but was not thinking straignt enough to turn the engine off, and all kinds of smoke started coming from the engine compartment and a fair amount into the interior too! Under the hood, it looked like the smoke was primarily coming from the area of the transmission dipstick (driver's side, rear of engine compartment). I had to wait at least 4 hours for AAA, and the next day I found out from my mechanic/uncle that a tranny line had burst. Today he's going to replace the hose and check out the condition of the tranny, but I'm curious to find out from those of you who've had the same problem, if it is likely that my tranny was ruined in the process.

This happened the 2nd day after I got it back from the shop for replacement of a blown half-shaft. There was a mysterious brown (defintely not red, if anything it appeared slightly greenish) fluid that was leaking during that break down. (My tranny fluid had always been clean and red.) After replacing the half-shaft, my uncle had identified 3 leaking fluids: some from the rack, some engine oil, and some tranny fluid. He had tightened up the tranny lines at that time, but in hind sight one of those lines counldn't withstand the pressure. He told me to keep an eye on all 3 fluids, but we thought the slowly-failing rack was the main source of leakage. Just prior to the half-shaft incident the car had been sitting for 2 months while I was away, so that probably expedited the deterioration. Luckily, he only charged me for parts (and a dinner for him and my aunt), but his shop does not work on transmissions.

[Brian]

O.K., the word is so far, so good. Apparently, the mechanics working on my car last September in California had installed the wrong hoses. One of those is the one that burst, and the other was just about to. Now both have been replaced, all new tranny fluid has added, and the transmission SEEMS O.K. But only time on the road will tell if there's slippage and therefore damage. I've never driven a car w/transmission problems before, so I hope that I'll be able to tell if something is wrong.

[Earthworm]

How much fluid was lost? Did the car stop moving under it's own power?

[Brian]

No, I stopped the car from moving for fear of doing more damage. I'm not sure how much fluid it lost during the breakdown, since it was dark and raining, I was on the side of a busy road, and I didn't know yet that a line had burst. At the time I thought I had blown the transmission or maybe even the engine. The next day when my uncle did his cursory diagnosis, the dipstick showed that it was dry, so he put a couple of quarts of fluid in, and it poured out when he started the car. So I think It must have lost nearly all the fluid. I picked it up this evening, and everything seems normal so far.

[Earthworm]

When my hose failed I tried to drive it to a safe location. I almost made it but lost so much fluid that the car stopped moving (about 6-7 liters). I knew my transmission wasn't good before that happened but this couldn't have helped. The transmission was fine after I fixed the hose and replaced the fluid.

I think as long as your tranny didn't start slipping you should be relatively safe.

[Brian]

That's a good to hear!...Thanks! I drove it around quite a bit today, and everything still seems fine.