Man, this has been a shitty month. Three family deaths, DD gets busted into, now THIS. Okay, so I was going to begin swapping my cam tomorrow, so, I figured I'd drive the Camaro one more time before I put her out of commission. So I'm driving from the Southside up north to DePaul and everything was working fine.

So I get here and i'm driving around looking for a spot, finally give up, and start heading for the parking garage. So I'm at the stop sign about a block and a half away, wait for cars and start to go. But I'm not going anywhere. I rev it up and it starts to catch. So now I'm driving reving high (3500-4000) and going slowly. Feels like 1st and 2nd are gone. So I struugle into the garage, and of coarse, I have to rev it up to about 5000 just to get it to go up the levels of the garage.

So I park it and there's smoke coming out of my cowl, open the hood, theres smoke coming from behind the engine. Get on the ground, and theres a few drops of trans fluid under the car. I look back and there's drops leading down the aisle, around, down the aisle, tracing where I came from. I'm PISSED.

So to make it worse, I go to close the hood, and a ricer pulls up (99% of the cars there that aren't BMWs are ricers) and he says "heh, sucks to be you!"

First, never say that to a southsider whos trans just went out on his pride and joy. So I tell him "I'm gonna grab you by your pink polo shirt and throw your *** off this f*cking garage if you don't get the F*CK away from me!" (we're on the 4th level of it) but that's not important, just wanted to show yous how pissed I am.

Am I screwed or what??? I've always teken the best care of this car, and I'm so disappointed that this happened. I don't even want to think about the towing charges. So, If I'm screwed, I guess i'll have to bite the bullet and get the TH350 I was planning on getting (although not for another year ). What should I do? How bad is this? I don't have a lot of $$$ so whats a relatively cost effective way to go about this?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Now off to class for 12 hours...

 

You said you were leaking fluid......did you check the fluid lever when you parked it? I've lost fluid before (tranny cooler lines weren't tight) and I lost every gear. It could be as simple as to putting fluid back in it to drive it to the shop or home to save on some towing costs.

 

Holy crap, you've given me a ray of hope. I was sitting in class thinking about how uncomfortable I felt about how the cooler line clips sat when I reinstalled them, and I started to think that they may have come loose or not. Hell, it could've been leaking from the get go. I took it on LSD (EDIT: Lake Shore Drive) and got on it a few times, so they could have worked their way out.

It was strange because there was no sign that anything had happened. I was driving, I stopped, I gassed it, and it went nowhere. There was no strange noises, etc, etc. I was running late to class as it was so I did not check it, but I got my buddy coming later with a jack and some fluid and I'll check the lines then.

Thanks JakeY2KZ

Any other ideas?

 

That's pretty much what happened to mine. I was on the interstate driving fine and then all of a sudden the rpm's just jumped. Stopped the car and looked under it to notice tons of fluid pouring out from where I mounted the cooler.

You're tranny is probably fine, but you need to find the leak and fix it before you drive it again if there is one.

 

Yea, I'll check it out when I get out of my class...We'll just have to see I guess. Thanks for the help.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

Well JakeY2KZ you were right. One of the cooler lines popped out and leaked, the trans was practically bone dry. it looks like the clip on the one line was gone, so I was hoping that it would stay in until I got home and had the chance to get a new one. So I reconnected, refilled, and made it about 4 miles and it started doing it again. Pulled off to the side, and sure enough, I can smell it and see where it's coming from, same line. So at least I know what the problem is, and it's no biggie.

Had the car towed home from downtown ($120 plus 45 minutes of lecture on why not to get married ) So She's safe at home now, no tranny fluid, but at least it's home and ready for the new cam to go in.

Thanks again for the help. All's good now.

Rob

 

That was a ******' hell of a night. Northsiders act like they've never seen a goddamn LS1 before. It was fun...having a car up on jackstands in the middle of a parking garage, and leaving it up as we go to buy a funnel. At least we figured out what the problem was, but that's a ****** waste of 10 quarts of tranny fluid, and towing money. I'll find that clip and get that to work, no worries there. I just wish I could have seen the ricer you were talking about....he woulda been shitting pink if he talked to me like that.