1998 Cutlass trans...

I've just bought a 98 olds cutlass, I put it in reverse and backed up, when I put it in drive the car would not move in any gear unless I raced the engine. When the engine was raced it would only creep.

Someone told me to add a pint of ATF, that it might be low, but as we all know on these cars, there is no way to check the fluid level.

Anyway, I added it and everything has been okay so far (10 miles)

I hope this has taken care of the problem, but I am not so sure.

Does anyone have any thoughts of what another cause could be?

The main problem was the low fluid. Because the transmission uses the fluid to work if it is low then it will cause it to slip. The question here is to find out where the fluid went. Is there a leak? Transmissions don't burn fluid so it had to have leaked out. If it is working well now then you shouldn't have an issue. If you haven't changed the fluid and filter lately you may want to have it changed. Just don't let them talk you into a flush.

As for another cause the transmission may be going bad and the clutches or bands are damaged. If this is a high mileage car the possibility exists that it may be worn out. But doubtful!

the car has 98K on it. I'm hoping it is just leaking. the pan is wet. I bought a gasket and filter today.

The gasket came with the filter. It is a cork gasket. I used the cork gasket when I had a malibu (same trans). The thing leaked and I ended up draining the fluid and putting the old one back on which did the trick.

Are cork gaskets no good in general, or could it just have been the particular one I had?


You say not to let them talk me into a flush. I've never had a flush done and never plan on it. just curious, what is the reasoning behind not getting a flush?

Thanks for the input

The cork gasket is acceptable but it is not as good as a neoprene one. I use the black RTV in place of the gasket and never had an issue with it leaking. As for the flush, when they flush the transmission they use a large amount of fluid that actually washes the faces of the clutches and often removes material. If you have a high mileage car more then 40K or 50K miles it can do damage the transmission to the point that the transmission will fail within 10 or 20K. So I always recommend to keep up with fluid and filter changes and forget the flush unless you want or need a new transmission.

the car has 98K on it. I'm hoping it is just leaking. the pan is wet. I bought a gasket and filter today.

The gasket came with the filter. It is a cork gasket. I used the cork gasket when I had a malibu (same trans). The thing leaked and I ended up draining the fluid and putting the old one back on which did the trick.

Are cork gaskets no good in general, or could it just have been the particular one I had?


You say not to let them talk me into a flush. I've never had a flush done and never plan on it. just curious, what is the reasoning behind not getting a flush?

Thanks for the input
If this is a 4t60e trans it may have the reinforced pan gasket that is reusable.

thanks for the insight on the AT flush. I drained the trans, but couldn't finish the job. Autozone gave me the wrong part. They have the wrong filter listed in their computer. I told them to look up one for a malibu the same year and that did the trick.

Yeah, i'm going to reuse the old gasket. It looks okay. I thought since there was fluid leakage that maybe it was the gasket. By the way according to a link someone sent me, the pan was short about 2.5 quarts of fluid.

thanks guys.