Transmission hell
 

Good Day All!

A few weeks ago I was driving up a pretty steep incline and my automatic trans took a crap. when i pulled over steam or smoke (didnt smell like it was burning but also not the typical Georgia humidity either) was billowing out from under the truck and trans fluid was sprayed all over the chassis. i had it towed to a shop in town that i've heard is famous for ripping people off so i had it towed again to another shop. first guy told me trans would need to be rebuilt. even if that was true he wanted $1500 to do it and thats half of what i paid for the truck in the first place, so when i took it to the other guy he said it was a couple seals that need to be replaced and wanted $600-$700 for it, cant really afford that much but they guy said he put fluid in the trans and theres no more leaks and seems to be running fine, i drove it home and the only difference was the o/d off light was flashing. i bought another broke down ranger that has a brand new trans in it and i'm going to get it next weekend. got that truck for $500. so now ill have a new trans and a truck full of spare parts :).

About an hour ago i took my truck for a drive, was real easy on the trans, really just wanted to run it so the battery would charge and the engine got some exercise so to speak. i'm really kind of floored that after the trans borderline blew up that its running like its fine. from some of the other threads i've read on here the o/d off light seems to be the malignant tumor of my transmission cancer. I guess my question is if the trans blew up the way it did how the hell is it functioning at all right now? i'm gonna replace it regardless with this new transmission but id like to understand exactly whats going on with this one.

Your transmission overheated causing one of the seals to let go. It's more than likely still leaking just not at high pressure anymore. It's almost certainly internally damaged but if you stopped quick enough it's not impossible to be able to just let it cool off and add more fluid and have it "function" again. The od light flashing is the same as your check engine light being on... it means the computer has an error code in it, only it's a transmission related code. The shop should have been able to scan it and tell what the error is. The light flashing on it's own does not indicate a massive issue but combined with the overheating.... ehhh....

btw those prices are pretty fair for a transmission job. But definitely nice you found a donor truck cheaper!

that helps alot. good to know if i take it easy, watch the fluid like a hawk, i can still use it until i can fix it. Been borrowing my mothers car for the last few weeks and that has been a pain in the ass, if i can use the truck just for going back and forth to work that relieves alot of stress. Plus this gives me a better direction to go in my research

If it were me I'd swap transmissions with your "new" truck and then focus on finding out what, if, how the old one failed. You may be able to fix it yourself relatively cheap and then you have a spare trans ready to go. Also.... GO BUY A TRANSMISSION COOLER! I don't care what's already on the truck, it obviously wasn't good enough. They are cheap insurance that can and will greatly extend the life of any automatic trans.