Was driving my 2000 ES V6 auto yesterday and the car quit suddenly. But I suspected transmission problem because it felt like coming to a stop with a manual transmission without engaging clutch.

I limped home but as I took on some hills it started quitting again. I made it home and this morning I looked at the cold level of transmission fluid and it was above the hot mark level. So just now, I drained off 2 quarts from the bolt holes in the pan. Then I ran the engine in neutral for 15 minutes and measured the level. This time it was right in the middle of the hot zone.


Question is "did I harm the tranny?"

And did some computer sensor kill the engine before any damage was done? There are no dashboard check engine lights on.

 

Was this first check with the engine running on level ground? If it wasn't running, than the fluid reading high is OK, when it's pumping there is more fluid in the torque converter and drops the level way down.

Your symptoms actually sounded more like you were misfiring on one or more cylinders. It is just unusual for that to not trip the check engine light.

 

Car was level and cold and dip stick was really high.

Are you saying that when the car is cold and not running, there should be fluid 4 inches up the stick?

We have the same car same color. I have replace R lower control arm and now working on the left side. Also replaced rubber grommets on top of struts under the hood. grommets fix was cheap. It fixed the clunking. Replaced the water pump and the distributor. 210K miles. You might want to change out that distributor before it leaves you broke down on the road. Also replace the valve cover gaskets while you have the cover off to do the distributor. Mine were brittle and took a couple of hours to scrape off. It will be a little easier for you with only 179K miles. (But not much). Found tremendous sludge with ports blocked while I had the covers off.

 

Transmission fluid should only be checked while the engine is running (pumps the fluid out of the pan into the torque converter, it flows back to the pan when it's off). I'm not saying 4" up the dipstick while off and cold is normal, but if you haven't just added fluid, than it's likely been like that for a long while, and probably would have just been at the fill line or a little above it while running.

Thanks for your concern about the valve cover gaskets and the like. I had done mine about 20-30k ago. Only other repairs I have really had to do was the TCM gasket (caused limp mode), and a busted wheel bearing on the front passenger side. Other than that no problems whatsoever. The valve covers were just leaking, but not brittle. It was causing misfire condition with oil sitting on top of the plug. I run Valvoline high mileage synthetic mix, and do a 20k oil change interval. I have not had any sludging issues with this motor.

Do you also have the leather seats and amplifier under the passenger seat, as well heated mirrors?

 

Leather seats and amp yes, not sure on mirrors. I am in florida so i would never know.

Drove all day long today, added dry gas and full tank of high test. Not much difference.

Car runs great when cold but as soon as it warms up i stall out. Sometimes while coasting in neutral I can fire it right up and drive another couple of miles.

Right now I am thinking maybe coil. In the old days, bad coils worked great when they were cold. But as soon as they warmed up they quit.

If you havent changed out LCA then you will be very soon.

BTW I stopped at Autozone and they said #1 and #3 were misfiring. You were right on with your hunch. Question now is it coil or dist?

I had the dist replace about a year 2 years ago.

 

have you been running ATF + 4 IN IT?

 

Pixelpadre you said " Also replaced rubber grommets on top of struts under the hood. grommets fix was cheap. It fixed the clunking." What exactly was the clunking sound out of curiosity? I have a wicked sound I been trying to find. I was getting ready to do the ball joints but i have have been suspecting the strut mounts. Mine makes the sound when I make hard 90 degree turn. Let me know....

 

I believe he's mentioned in other posts that he uses atf+4. Either way his symptoms are not consistent with the use of the wrong fluid, which will be a "flutter" during acceleration or "slip" on shifting. And it would have certainly gone into "limp home mode" had it been a transmission problem. He stated that he "limped home" but didn't indicate that it was not shifting.

He was found to be misfiring on two cylinders, as stated in one of his replies above. Now to figure out what is causing the misfires, be it bad plugs, wires, distributor, etc...

I would personally work my way out, starting with plugs and wires if they haven't been done recently, checking for chaffed wires, or oil in the plug wells. Working your way up the ignition system.

 

I was going to work my way out. And I did.

I drained 2 qts of fluid and now level is normal stick. No change.

Bought a coil since the old days a hot coil would kill the engine. Took the dist cap off and found it was original with 205k miles. It was a mess, totally useless. Amazing the car even ran at all. So I changed out the dist cap. Dist was two years old. The guy I paid to replace it put the orig cap back on.

Started right up and red lined. Shut if off fast and restarted and it red lined again. Took everything all apart and reassembled. This time idle was 4K. So I shut it off and turned it back and and idle was 3500. After 5 mins it finally settled down to 750 rpm.

I think the computer overcompensated for such a poor dist cap that when I put in the new one the engine went nuts.

Got up the next morning turned the key and nothing. Dang I thought. What now.

Ignition fuse blew.

Runs like a brand new Fiat now.