Transmission has water

[jeremiahschmidt]

Well just to be honest i know zero about transmissions so i will explain as good as possible. First the !999 Alero will only go backwards and does not go foreward. Also a transmission shop told me there was water in the transmission pan. He said once water enters the transmission fluid, it becomes acidic and then could eat away your clutch. My uncle said all it was, was probably just some type of spring that it is easy to get to and change(he is a car guru) but the guy at the shop said that i would need to replace the whole transmission. What is up do i need to change my tranny or do i need to change a spring.

[GTP Dad]

Welcome to AF!!

First of all you need to pull the pan and drain the water. If it is antifreeze you need to replace either the radiator or put an external cooler on the transmission. Drain the old fluid and replace both the fluid and filter with new. If the damage isn't too bad you should get more mileage out of the transmission. If it has gone on for some time then you will probably need another transmission. If I were you I would purchase a used one from a wrecking yard rather than a new one. Search car-part.com for wrecking yards in your area. You can save some major bucks doing it that way. Also tell your uncle there are not springs that allow water into the transmission. There has to be a leak either in the cooler in the radiator or you have been driving through lakes.

[maxwedge]

Originally Posted by GTP Dad

Welcome to AF!!

First of all you need to pull the pan and drain the water. If it is antifreeze you need to replace either the radiator or put an external cooler on the transmission. Drain the old fluid and replace both the fluid and filter with new. If the damage isn't too bad you should get more mileage out of the transmission. If it has gone on for some time then you will probably need another transmission. If I were you I would purchase a used one from a wrecking yard rather than a new one. Search car-part.com for wrecking yards in your area. You can save some major bucks doing it that way. Also tell your uncle there are not springs that allow water into the transmission. There has to be a leak either in the cooler in the radiator or you have been driving through lakes.

Just a quick add to this is you may have to do a complete trans flush to get all the fluid out of the torque convertor also.

[JTrujillo86]

Regarding the full flush: There has been some discussion here about whether these help or hurt the Alero transmissions. Some have commented on their tranny crapping the bed about 10K miles after they have this done, especially if the car has high mileage. I did a complete flush, fill, and filter change at about 30K miles, but I think I'll just drain, fill and do the filter change the next time around, which will be soon for me.

I guess since the tranny isn't working properly anyway a full flush/fill couldn't hurt it, but I wouldn't recommend it, just to be safe.

- Jeremy

[GTP Dad]

In this case he really doesn't have any choice but to do a complete fluid exchange to get the water out of the converter unless he wants to drop the transmission and drain it manually. Stick with the fluid exchange, less work and cost.

[JTrujillo86]

Good point...

- Jeremy