We picked up a 87 DL few weeks ago, 68,000 original miles, 1.8 engine, auto. Has been running great, did all the usual maintenence sort of things, all was fine. Ran it on a 400 mile round trip, next morning husband said it wouldn't shift, showed no tranny fluid on the stick. He came home, looked all over it, no apparant leaks, no burning tranny fluid smell, no oily residue on rear of car. Followed manual, warmed car up, added tranny fluid up to 2 quarts total. Car is shifting fine again, engine running fine, so he takes it for a short run down the road. It starts blowing white smoke out of the tail pipe that smells like tranny fluid. There's no oil in the water, there's no water in the oil, engine sounds fine, shifts perfect now. Except for this huge white cloud of smoke its all good, called my Subaru guy, he's puzzled. Does not appear to be any tranny fluid leaking onto the exhaust, and the smoke is coming out of the tail pipe. I'm thinking it was over filled, I might have him drain it and go from there. Any ideas? Anyone had this happen before? Thanks in advance for any info.

We picked up a 87 DL few weeks ago, 68,000 original miles, 1.8 engine, auto. Has been running great, did all the usual maintenence sort of things, all was fine. Ran it on a 400 mile round trip, next morning husband said it wouldn't shift, showed no tranny fluid on the stick. He came home, looked all over it, no apparant leaks, no burning tranny fluid smell, no oily residue on rear of car. Followed manual, warmed car up, added tranny fluid up to 2 quarts total. Car is shifting fine again, engine running fine, so he takes it for a short run down the road. It starts blowing white smoke out of the tail pipe that smells like tranny fluid. There's no oil in the water, there's no water in the oil, engine sounds fine, shifts perfect now. Except for this huge white cloud of smoke its all good, called my Subaru guy, he's puzzled. Does not appear to be any tranny fluid leaking onto the exhaust, and the smoke is coming out of the tail pipe. I'm thinking it was over filled, I might have him drain it and go from there. Any ideas? Anyone had this happen before? Thanks in advance for any info.

 

The vacuum diaphram of the governor could be sucking in ATF out of the trans. Pull the vacuum line off of the governor and see if there is ATF inside it. If so that is likely the problem. Replace governor.

 

to clarify. Did you just add two quarts? or drain it and then fill with only 2 quarts? I would flush all the fluid and refill. Capacity is around 6-7 quarts.

No we just added two quarts to bring the level back up, will have Hub read this and check it out tonight, thanks.