Or should I say "transaxle" like my owners manual calls it...
anyway here's the "back story":
12 year old 1995 Buick Skylark. 187,000 miles, all mine bought it brand new in '95.
In the past all has been GREAT with the car, with some dumb exceptions mostly my fault. I
used to goto a jiffy lube place about 7-9 years ago with it because of easiness, and I'm lazy. back then I ended up having a tranny problem, turns out the fluid was bad and contaminated from them, who knows what the F they did, but the fluid was almost white, like oil with a broken head gasket.
got a real flush and clean from a family trusted mechanic place (completely reputable for 20+ years to us and others we personally know)
last transmission work done on the car this time last year radiator went, and had the rad, and tranny fluid cooler in it replaced, and a fresh flush and fill of fluid.
problem:
today, driving somewhere I stopped 3 times in 5 minutes after driving about 30 miles. after the 3rd stop I made the car accelerated REAL funny. I looked down and my spedometer wasn't working, and the service engine soon light came on (saw all this within 30 seconds of going.
drove to my buddies house close by, looked up autozone for the free diagnosis reader, went there, and No luck they don't have the adapter for 98 and older cars. checked a few other places on the phone no luck, so went to his house and started calling mechanic buddies including his neighbor.
while driving there what i found was major "slippage" accelerating from a stop, but once up to above 30 everything worked decent. if i let of the accelerator while going say 45 the RPM's would go down to idle like i was in neutral though.
first thought from some was low fluid. we got busy with a neighborhood baseball game and 5 hour later I went to go home, figuring I can make it the 7 miles, and will deal tomorrow.
started the car, and everything worked just fine. stopped at a local gas station OTW and properly warmed up and all checked the tranny fluid. it was 1/2 quart low. turned off the car, bought and added 1/2 quart almost exactly. sat a few minutes, then started it up, and bam light, and slow accell and again no speedometer.
from there it was 2 miles home, and 1/2 way I pulled over to check it again and to make sure there were no major leaks, "fire" under the car or anything.
from there all went to crap. slipping acceleration, more extreme than before, and then I went to manually check if the other "gears" worked. I only have D 3 and 2 D is circled / overdrive.
going to 3 did nothing going to 2 made me have no acceleration at all. then the weirdest thing happened. I was pissed, and slammed the console shifter forward a bit hard, and it went into reverse.
the engine "quit" like I turned the key off, and the battery and another light went on.
there was NO lurch or even a hint of it going into reverse, it should have not let me at 35 mph anyway, even if should have rocked the transmission so bad I'd leave it in the street.
I slipped it into neutral, and tried the key... nothing, not even click, or anything. I came to a stop, parked it, and tried the key. nothing, still lights on the dashboard and all, turned the key off, pulled it out, then tried starting it again. room a zoom, all good. started driving, and got to about 25 still in 1st gear, RPM's about 5500, I let off the gas, and the engine started slowing the car, then I slipped it into neutral again. RPM's went normal, the I put it back in drive. except for no speedometer, and the slipping acceleration mentioned earlier all was "normal"
everything points to transmission, and I
thought the fluid would have at least helped not make other weird problems.
I am fairly technically proficient on cars, and can change wheel bearings, and plugs / coils, and other internal engine related things, and was wondering about the speedometer cable or something similar... but I don't know.
anyone have a possible diagnosis?
thanks.
