I bought a 2004 dodge neon that has 122k miles on it for $850. runs great except that the cars transmission is bad. while its running and in neutral it acts like the parking brake is on. shut the car off and then it will roll.

i pulled the tranny pan off and it was mostly red fluid until i got to the bottom and it was a creamy color and thicker. no chunks of anything. i called my tranny guy and he thinks its a trans cooler leak.

no trans fluid in my coolant or any that is visible till i drain the coolant out and see.whats at the bottom.

another guy told me to get new fluid and a filter kit and drain the old stuff out and try that and get a external trans cooler.

not sure if that would fix my problem or if it would work. i heard trans fluid with antifreeze just eats the clutches up and thats why the trans clutch packs are stuck and its trying to do two things at once and thats why it wont move when its running.

what do you think?

 

Trans cooler failure usually doesn't mean good things for the trans.

 

i recently had my ATX out of the car and did an overhaul, first one i ever did. i wish i spent a little more and got a full rebuild kit, but point is, it's alot easier than you might think to rebuild it. id recommend a good quality pair of snap ring pliers, thats the only thing i can think of off the top of my head that's more along the lines of specialty tools that you would need. sounds like you got a pretty killer deal. id say its worth it to just pull the trans and rebuild it.

 

i used to rebuild fwd Chrysler minivan transmissions in high school. i know their easy if you have a book and know the tolerances within spec and a rebuild kit. i just dont have time to rebuild it.