girlfirend in touble

[scottsdale84]

she called me from the side of the road and trans. went out on her while she was driving and does not know how to check the fluid level. she would give it gas but would go nowhere. she turned off the car for about three min. and restarted it let her drive but very slowly for about 3 min. but no ginding noises are happining. if she is out of fluid which she probally is ( she has never checked it or had it serviced ) if she adds fluid should it work?

[BrodyP]

What kind of car?
Maybe she is out of gas?
Fluids which ones?
Check the oil and coolant.

When you say grinding I fear the engine is seizing up due to having no oil
Is there any smoke coming form under the hood?

Give us a little more to go on, slow down when you type.

[scottsdale84]

Originally Posted by scottsdale84

she called me from the side of the road and trans. went out on her while she was driving and does not know how to check the fluid level. she would give it gas but would go nowhere. she turned off the car for about three min. and restarted it let her drive but very slowly for about 3 min. but no ginding noises are happining. if she is out of fluid which she probally is ( she has never checked it or had it serviced ) if she adds fluid should it work?

ok sorry just a little freaked out it is a 92' civic plenty of gas and oil and does not know how to check the trans. fluid. but she has never had her transmission serviced she was going down the road when she had decreasing supply of power to the wheels, then no power to the wheels she got the car stopped on the side of the road and put it in park. engine temp was normal and all seemed fine she put it in drive and went nowhere. she tried all of the gears even rev. but nothing. she turned off the car for about 5 min. and then restarted she could then move at about 25 mph for about 3 min but then no power to the wheels. is her trans. doomed? or could there be some kind of sensor that cuts off the drive to the car if she has no trans. fluid or if it is too hott?

[ansidious]

I suspect from your description that she has run out of transmission fluid (or the fluid probably turned all black). The best thing to do in this case is not to attempt driving the car before the transmission is checked. The car should be towed to some mechanic where this could be checked and rectified immediately. In the best case, the transmission would have survived. But transmissions are more prone to breakdown than any other part of the car. I would cross my fingers on this one.

[ansidious]

As per the Honda manuals, you don't need to change the transmission fluid till 60K miles. A friend of mine says he first changed it at 80K and some claim they never needed to change it yet. It's still a good idea to keep checking the color and level every three months or so.

[BullShifter]

Is is stick or auto? Sounds like the clutch done blowed up

[fiberglasscivic]

Originally Posted by scottsdale84

...she got the car stopped on the side of the road and put it in park...

I'm guessing that it's an automatic.

If that's the case then I don't think that you will have to worry to horribly much. Either it's out of trans fluid or there could be a problem with the torque converter or gear pump. The torque converter actually causes the transmission to start moving the gears. It's the part that allows the transmission to idle when the car is stopped (the effect is similar to the clutch in a manual transmission but the overall workings are very different). The gear pump provides fluid to the entire hydrolic system.

I've had to replace the gear pump before and the problems I had were very much similar to the ones you're describing. If the gear pump is the problem then what was happening when she would shut the car off was that the fluid in the system would settle and build up enough pressure (due to gravity) to help the gear pump get first gear engaged and flow enough fluid into the torque converter to get the car moving. When the pressure level dropped far enough the car would stop moving because there wasn't enough fluid pressure to move the torque converter.

Take it to a transmission shop and have them look at it. It may not be very expensive to replace (in comparison to the whole transmission).

If the fluid level is low then depending on what caused the fluid level to become low, yes she would be able to add fluid to fix the problem. If there is a damaged portion of the transmission housing that's leaking fluid then it would only be a temporary fix.

[honda_luvr_2000]

well if indeed it is an auto then fluid is most likely the problem. there is a dipstick for the transmission fluid. check the fluid level when the fluid is warm (thats how u r supposed to check), new fluid is red (SLIGHTLY pink), orangish/red still ok, tan to black = burnt. if it's not on the dipstick then it could simply be too low. if it's black then it's too burnt and not allowing the clutches to grip. if it's low then add fluid, let it idle in park for a while and check under the car for leaking. if it's not leaking then take it to a shop to have it diagnosed. it's possible for the transmission to go bad, not very common. my buddy's mom had a 98 civic that the transmission went bad in. i've only come across one other in the 88-05 civic run. if u do find that it's leaking then that will most likely be an easy cheap fix. there are three seals that could potentially leak, out of those most likely one of the axle seals. also an axle could have popped out of the transmission. i had that happen to me personally but it was a manual. i had an auto accord that had poor shifting and poor accel, and it was simply the driver's axle that had popped out. i wouldn't worry too much, but i also would try not to drive it until it's taken care of.

-edit: the trans fluid dipstick is on the passenger side on the back side of the trans near the battery but down, kinda hidden by the air intake tube, should have a yellow rubber ring. not the dipstick on the front of the engine through the exhaust manifold