Thread: harsh shift + brown fluid.. problem?

Hello all,

On my way to home after work, after a stop, I noticed shifting was VERY hard. By hard, I mean not smooth..and slow to upshift.
Thankfully it was close to home so I stopped, and checked the fluid. It is brown almost like the engine oil. I've driven this car for 80k (194k current) and it has alwyas been pink.
I had an oil change less than a week ago..but how can one add transmission fluid by accident??

(The engine temp was a little higher than normal when I finally arrived..but it may be unrelated.)
Getting closer to home, it became worse shifting. I'm afraid to drive and think it's safe not to drive at this moment.

Please help.

edit: I forgot to mention at the same time the harsh shifting appeared, I also hear a noise that changes its pitch with rpm.

Drop the tranny pan. Install a shift kit/filter and refill w/ tranny fluid. Hope it fixes the issues and that you don't have to service the tranny.

^^^this. at least change the filter and fluid

Yup shift kit is not needed but while your doing the pan drop it's a great idea to go ahead and install one.

Fluid gets dirty over time. You change your oil right? This is no different.

it gets dark over time, being that its got 190,000 on it with out being serviced it should be dark brown and burnt up.

the filter gets clogged and thats why you hear that whine with the rpms. ( its the pump starving for fluid) the filter clog is also causing your hard shift i bet too.

drop the pan, change the filter. get 7 quarts of trans fluid, and one quart of some kind of trans medic and you should be ok for a while.

AND DONT LET ANYONE TALK YOU INTO FLUSHING THE TRANS, THAT WILL KILL IT FOR SURE.

Originally Posted by kind153

drop the pan..and change the filter. and will it be OK?? or is the damage done?

It 'should' be ok but there's always a chance that it may not fix it then you'll have to go from there.

Put a bottle of lucas stop slip in it when you do it. Should be ok maybe.

brown fluid just means its used up. it should be red ish pink.

lets just put it this way, a pan drop and filter change, a quart of lucas and topped off with dex 3 fluid is you best chance of saving this tranny.

if you do nothing it will be dead before you know it, with the pump whining, id stop driving it asap, and get this done pronto.

I did my own filter and fluid change and I'm a chick . Yes it was a little messy, but nothing the oversized catch pan didn't catch.
It's easy to do it yourself and save a bunch of money!

Do it yourself no sense in paying a pro to do something you can easily do. Do you change your own oil? If yes...you can do a pan drop. It can be a bit messy but you can get a rubbermaid container and use that to catch any fluid and or put painters plastic underneath the car if your worried about a mess.

you can do it, its easy.

have a large oil pan to catch the fluid.

you take out a few bolts at one corner, then start to loosen up the rest little by little, the fluid will drain from the one corner. the pan is shallow so when its stops leaking hold the pan up and remove the rest of the pan bolts. lower it and spill whats left into the catch pan.

have a can of brake cleaner handy, and some shop rags to clean the pan, there will be sludge all over it and a pile on the magnet, get rid of all that crap. clean the old gasket and re use it. pop the old filter off, pop the new one in place.

put the pan back on, drop the lucas in, and then 6 more quarts of trans fluid. fire it up, let it idle check the fluid level. top off as need, wait for the trans to get hot then re check before adding more fluid if your 1 quart low when cold.

It's alot of bolts but pretty easy! My car shifted 10 times better once i changed the fluid and filter. I put the Trans-Go shift kit in while I was at it. Shifts like a top now!

Yes it does! Get a funnel.