Pulled a friend’s car up a long hill with my car using a chain. I had to go slow to compensate for his lack of power to his power steering. I even reached a point near the top where my car would no longer pull and had to back down to a flatter section and get a little more speed up to make it up that final section.
Now I’m getting a whiff of something when my car is running. Maybe transmission fluid. What have I done / possibly done / or should be looking out for.
Thanks,
-rainy
what kind of car is yours (make/model/year, manual/auto transmission), and what kind of car were you pulling? How long did the tow job take?
An automatic transmission shouldn’t roast the fluid unless you’re grinding up a miles-long mountain grade with a heavy load at such a low speed that the torque converter is in slip mode.
Some cars with auto-transmissions have a dipstick, some don’t. If yours does, pull the dipstick and see what the fluid looks like.
2001 Toyota Sequoia, automatic. Tow job was maybe 1/8 of a mile or so, pretty steep incline, going very slow, took 2 minutes maybe. Longer with the backing down and retrying. I was in 4 wheel, geared down to low.
My transmission fluid has looked dark for a while now (since before this) haven’t ponied up the cash to have it flushed.
I’d add to smell the fluid also. It may well smell burnt.
If the car has a manual transmission, the clutch might have gotten burnt up some also. Sometimes this is just a matter of reducing the lifespan of the clutch. As long as it isn’t slipping, I wouldn’t worry about it.
I’d also recommend checking all the fluids (well maybe not the washer fluid so much). Check the coolant with the engine completely cold - like after sitting overnight. Check both the reservoir and take off the radiator cap. There shouldn’t be any air inside the radiator.
It’s also possible that an accessory belt has slipped some. If pulling the car up the hill, you might have sped the engine rpm well past the normal. In fact maybe the power steering pump, water pump, or alternator got fried some during the towing.
If it was a manual I would be surer of my answer. You may have just cooked the fluid a little. IIRC in autos the fluid can “give out” without/before any mechanical damage. Now may be the perfect time for that flush and change.
What’s the timeline here? Relative to the towing, when did the smell start, how long has it persisted, and is it getting any better?
The tow doesn’t sound like any great strain. I am wondering if a fluid leaked or spilled, maybe because of an abnormally high tilt, and is slowly burning off some hot surface.
Towing was Saturday, noticed the smell pretty shortly thereafter, maybe not until Sunday maybe later on Saturday. So it has persisted for 2-3 days.
Or ---- one of my Dad’s past cars would sometimes shoot some fluid out the tranny dipstick tube under load/strain.
Or maybe it was just happy to see him.
Were you running 4/Low on dry pavement or loose materiel?
That might be where the strain on the system is.
