I hit a deer a week back, and got my car back repaired for over $2500 (new radiator, plastic under tray, etc.) a couple days ago.

I've been driving it for 2 days and it's been perfectly fine, shifting fine, no problems.

Well tonight, it just randomly went bad.

I would shift my car into drive (an automatic) and I would have to rev it to around 5k rpms for it to go anywhere. Not good. I pull over and my engine is smoking.

Is this a transmission issue? Where it can't go anywhere? even when i shift it into drive and didn't gas it, it would start going backwards.

 

If I am not mistaken there is tranny cooler lines running to the Automatic radiator. Maybe they forgot to hook it up and tranny overheated. Not sure what the real issue is and if accident caused it. Could be that the fluid leaked out after accident and they did not check / fill. I would make sure you have enough fluid and it is less than 30k miles old. Hope someone else can chime in and give you other things to look for.

 

You should first check to see if theres any leaks , maybe a leak in a transmission line. Check around where it was parked to see if theres fluids on the ground. I could be a simply fix and hopefully its nothing too big.

 

Yupp exactly right on its the first thing i was thinking maybe after the impact a leakage that they didint notice

 

Thank you so much for the reply. I am hoping so. Before I hit the deer, i've been driving my G for 5 months and have had ZERO problems with it. Not a single thing wrong. Ill check first thing in the morning.

Thank you very much for the reply. It's left at a best buy so its too late to check if there are any leaks. I never had a problem with my G until tonight. I hope it is not something big.

 

Remember to check the tranny level with the engine running
you"ll need a 10mm socket to get the dipstick off

 

I hate to say this but, if you continued to drive your car after the impact it is possible that you have coolant in the transmission fluid. The impact could have shattered the plate seperating the radiator from the transmission fluid cooler. If that is the case they will have to drain and flush the transmission, if that doesn't work it's new transmission time. I hit a soda bottle about half full of soda at 100mph dead center under the front bumper. What I stated above is exactely what happened to my car. They flushed...didn't work and then had to install a new transmission. Luckily it was still under the powertrain warranty

 

If they didn't hook up the cooler, you wouldn't have a working car. It's in series with the circuit.

This is most likely your problem given the deer hit:

1. As stated above, you have coolant in your trans fluid (and vice-versa - you can EASILy check by looking at your coolant level).

2. You are leaking and have finally lost just enought fluid to make drivability an issue.

Good luck with your solution.

 

UPDATE

Got the car back from the shop.

What happened was the hose leading to the transmission had a slight tear in it, causing it to leak transmission fluid over a couple days. Last night is when it leaked so much that it caused the tranny to overheat.

Got a new hose and everything is all good now.