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Trans ran dry of fluid.

1.3K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  SR Performance  
#1 ·
I started getting a bit of vibration on the way home from work today. It didn't seem major but was definitely noticeable and fluctuated a little bit with rpm. I pulled over to check it out and saw nothing obvious. It was very familiar to when I tore up the poly bushing in my old dogbone mount so I just figured I had just torn the bushing and continued to drive home. I get home and jack the car to check it out, only to find that dogbone was fine. I then noticed that the entire bottom of my car was covered in a dark blue/purple-ish fluid. Realizing right away that it was transmission fluid (Roayl Purple 75-90 gear oil), I looked at the trans to find that my fluid drain plug had managed to vibrate out and spilled out all over the bottom of the car and the road. I managed to drive 45 minutes at ~70mph on the interstate with a dry transmission. :( I'm off work tomorrow so I'm going to just put in another plug and refill it with fluid and see how it drives. So someone tell me, is this trans F'd?
 
#2 ·
Damn this sucks to hear man. i would fill it with some cheap fluid and drive it for 15 min or so and then drain it out to see if there is anything in it metal wise. If it's all clean then i would say your good to go.
 
#4 ·
I bought an '05 ZX3/MTX at a dealer auction a couple of years back.Drove it home about 65 miles...and noticed it didn't shift very smoothly. When I checked the oil level on the transaxle the next day,I could not get any on a screwdriver inserted into the fill hole.I removed the drain plug..to find ZERO gear oil. I figured it was a gonner at that point..but I filled it up with Ford honey,and proceeded to put about 1k trouble free/quiet miles on the car before selling it..and the new owner is still enjoying it to this day.(I did tell him about the "missing" oil) So,where did all that gear oil go? Rummaging through the glovebox revealed the car had JUST had a 50 point service inspection by the Ford dealer I bought the car from,(where it was traded in) Guess someone forgot one of those 50 "points". The MTX is a pretty rugged unit..I'll bet you will be fine. :)