ivbdn

So..I'm on the freeway when all of the sudden, smoke comes billowing out the back side of my car. I pull over...kinda nervous cuz I thought my poor baby caught on fire.

I'm on the shoulder and as soon as there was no more smoke, I put it in D and try to hobble off to the exit. I slowly get on the gas...no go. I I tried one more time and guessed it was tranny fluid.

Tow truck comes and off to the closest dealership.

Somehow...one of the hoses came off and all the tranny oil spilled off under the car.

This was yesterday.

I just got back from the dealership and my personal assessment tells me there's some damage done. When driving it semi-hard to hard, the tranny slips a bit. There was one point on the freeway when I had to slow down due to traffic. When it was time to accelerate, the engine revved and revved for about 2 seconds before finally catching.

Tires chirped a bit and off I went. Sometimes, it feels as though it doesn't know what gear to go to. Other times, it feels as though it's FWD, then realizes it's supposed to be AWD. I know about the 90/10 torque split, but it feels more like 100% at first (ewww). I brought it back to them and we test drove it.

It may very well be that the oil needs to get "reacquainted" with the tranny as it was bone dry when I brought it in and that's what I was told, but I truly believe it's been damaged.

My question is if there has been damage, what parts of the tranny do you guys think got damaged? Cost of repair? Suggestions? Comments? HELP!

ivbdn

Ok...so I got some help and checked on the ATF fluid. It's full.

What I've noticed is that during turns, it will slip about 90% of the time. It almost feels like a FWD in the rain. Towards the exit of the turn, it'll catch on again. Any theories? Think my diffs may have gotten screwed? Either way...I think I'm screwed.

ivbdn

I've narrowed it down that if the tranny needs to downshift due to deceleration from braking and I let it coast a bit, then get on the gas (hence why it slips during a turn), I get some major slippage. This can obviously be somewhat of a hazard as it takes nearly an extra second or two to make a turn.

Manually downshifting and blipping the throttle seems to help, but towards the exit of the turn, it'll slip. And if I stay on the throttle when it catches, front wheels slip and chirp, hence the FWD feel.

Doesn't anybody else have any ideas on what may be going wrong? I've noticed my mileage go to hell now.

On the brighter side, I now have a reason to "heel/toe" in a 4EAT.