Hello, I found this site and joined now I have searched for anything reguarding Transmission leaks and so forth and can't find much of anything so I figured I would ask now.

First off we have a 96 dodge caravan, we bought it a year ago September it's got well over 110k miles on it. I'm happy with it and haven't had much of a problem with it just an annoyance. Soon after we got it, it started dying out at stop signs and lights. Or slow rolls thru residential areas. A simple shift to nurtral and restart while crusing down the road solved the problem. We took it back to the dealership we bought it from (small time used car dealer) and he took it to be fixed. He said it was 170.00 O2 sensor and replaced it. So we went on, but it still did the stalling or drying out as before. So we took it to the shop and had them put it on the computer and it said the same thing o2 sensor. Well... after being replaced twice the second time no charge by garage. We continued to have the problem, but being we are a family of seven on one income we had no choice really after just putting 1000 down on this van.

Anyhow, we continue to drive it til this weekend. This weekend, we left to go somehwere and the gears weren't grabing. It took several minutes for it to grab gears then it did a slow roll like it only went in first gear then back to nutral. Husband checked the fluid in it and added a quart, it still did this he checked the level again then added another quart. Keep in mind I wasn't aware until now after doing a search about the importance of the kind of fluid used. However using cheap wal mart fluid, we continued to have this problem. So we parked the van and started looking for problems. We discovered the whole bottom of the front end well not all of it but majority of it has Trannie fluid all over it. So we drive it up on ramps, get under it and one of us puts the fluid in a quart... then gets under the van and looks we can't find the leak. But it's gone in a matter of minutes, amout of time example is: we put another quart in, then pulled it off the ramps drove it back and forth a few times putting it in revers, then drive about six times it stopped grabbing gears and then we parked it checked the fluid again and it was empty again. So we did the same and repeated, wasted some more fluid, and figured it's a leak some where under there but we can't figure out where... I'm so confused and stressed. I see all the posts on problems with transmissions, and they were talking about the limp mode, well that's what I'm suspecting this is the way the gears grab when the fluid gets low is the limp mode situation. However we can't get out of limp mode til we find the leak. Is there a popular spot for leaks that we should look for, or is this a sign of something worse, or does anyone have any valuable input at all that might help me, inlighten me, or educate me on this matter a little more.

I am having it go into my friends shop tomorrow, how ever he no matter how good of a friend, won't do the work for free and I understand the costs of the repairs to transmissions is quit expensive. So if there is something that I could be aware of that might save me some time in labor possibly whle he's looking for the problems or something I might be able to do that I haven't tried yet. Please help if you can.

I will keep you updated on any new findings

Thanks

My_funny_Farm

I really don't believe your transmission is in the limp mode. You are losing fluid so fast that the gears don't have time to work properly. I think your best course of action is to have the friend look at it to determine where the leak is coming from. If it is leaking as fast as you describe, you must have either a broken transmission cooler line, the front seal is gone from the transmission or the pan has a major hole or gasket leak. Good Luck!

I really don't believe your transmission is in the limp mode. You are losing fluid so fast that the gears don't have time to work properly. I think your best course of action is to have the friend look at it to determine where the leak is coming from. If it is leaking as fast as you describe, you must have either a broken transmission cooler line, the front seal is gone from the transmission or the pan has a major hole or gasket leak. Good Luck!I agree... it's gotta be lines, seals and/or gaskets. Get it fixed soon because these torque converters (they are not transmissions, really) rely in hydraulics to properly oprate and prevent internal damage. If you're running your torque converter dry, you're just *begging* for a much bigger and WAY more expensive problem. Don't drive it another inch until your trusted mechanic has fixed the leak.