I just finished doing a timing belt and went to drive my car around the block but I was getting almost no power. When I opened the hood I saw white/grey smoke coming from the bottom of the transaxel area. My tranny fluid is burnt but I was told not to change the stuff lest some gunk free up and lodge itself in some transmission related valves, tranny fluid also overfilled a bit. Does any of this ring a bell w/ anyone?

Hi. Hm doesn't ring anything off hand. Is there oil leaking out the timing belt covers now?

 

I would change the ATF anyway. It was true on garbage domestic transmissions of that era that often an ATF change on a higher mileage unit (if they made it that far) would cause the transmission to not shift right or not shift at all (because it was relying on the gunk in thereto function). But not so the Subaru trans.

 

Soob AT's of that era did have some potential issues with overheating, and AFAIK it may have been because of the in radiator tank cooler plugging up with shreddings. Actually many domestics had and still have that issue. The torque converter and friction material garbage would exit the trans and plug up the cooler. Then without adequate cooling the unit would overheat and be damaged. But Subaru caught on pretty fast and introduced a retrofit to install a filter in the line before the cooler, and then later introduced the spin on filter right on the side of the trans.

bullschmidt. don't change it. i lost a lego trans to a flush. shifted just fine. changed the fluid. dead. 1-2 only. domestic or foreign, the valve bodies are still made of aluminum.

If its burnt, change it. go for it:grin:

Well one additional thing to say, is if after a proper ATF change the transmission has issues, the fact of the matter is the transmission had problems before the fluid was changed too, they were just being masked by all the crap built up in the trans. Now I did have this happen too on a '91 Escort with a garbage transmission. So there is going to be people who have experiences both ways. Ultimately you'll have to make the decision as to whether to change it or not. The common failures modes are described above.

 

If your fluid is burnt, you may want to flush the radiator ATF cooler at the minimum, since if that's plugged or restricted, even if you change the oil the trans is still going to be running hot.

 

Otherwise someone could say, yah I've seen this one guy who changed his engine oil and then his engine threw a rod two days later, so I'm never going to change my engine oil again.

Edited September 11, 201015 yr by porcupine73

bullschmidt. don't change it. i lost a lego trans to a flush. shifted just fine. changed the fluid. dead. 1-2 only. domestic or foreign, the valve bodies are still made of aluminum.

Flush - NO, drain and refill - YES.

Change the ATF. All those stories about changing the ATF causing the transmission to then fail are old wives tails. Those situations are perfect examples of too little to late. Porcupine73 is exactly right.

Just make sure you use the correct ATF type!