6G Celicas Forums

Ok I need some advice. I'll start off by saying I know very little about cars.

So about a month and a half ago my car (97 GT) decided it was only going to drive in reverse. I had this mechanic guy who specializes in Japanese engines look at it and he said the transmission was shot and needed replacing. $800 for the part, $400 for the labor. I took out an advance at work to pay for the transmission, and he said I could make payments over time on the labor cause he's a friend of my roommate. I still owe him $225.

The week before last the car starts acting funny again, the transmission is slipping, it wont start up the first time when its cold, and I notice its leaking fluid. I took it to Midas, as the mechanic guy told me I needed to have the transmission serviced as soon as I could, and have the filter replaced, because he didn't do that when he replaced the transmission. The guys at Midas take one look at it and tell me they cant help me because the hose that connects the transmission to the radiator isnt hooked up right and its leaking. They tell me that whoever did the transmission work needs to fix this.

I take the car back to Japanese engine guy. He tells me that nobody in his shop would have had any reason to touch that hose, and it's not his fault that its leaking.

It never leaked before I brought it to him.

He proceeds to tell me he can fix it for $25 more than what I already owe him, keeps the car for 3 days and gives it back to me "fixed" along with a huge lecture about "owner vandalism" and how I need to check all the fluids more often. Basically he treats me like a complete idiot. I checked the transmission fluid as soon as I noticed there was a problem. I checked it every day and added fluid as needed until I was able to bring the car back to him. (Which was only 3 days.)

So it's been a week now, and he's expecting me to give him more money on Friday.

Yesterday when I got home after driving the car from SLO to Osos (25 minutes) a white cloud of transmission-fluid-stink came out of the front of the car when I parked it. I checked the transmission fluid dipstick thing and it was completely dry. I put in nearly two quarts of fluid, drove to and from work today, and again, when I got home I could smell the transmission fluid and the dipstick came out dry.

I can see the pink fluid dripping out of the SAME spot under the hood.

Should I take the car back to this a-hole, who has had more chances than I feel like he deserves, to fix it? Or should I take it somewhere else and tell this guy to eff off cause I'm spending his money at another mechanic?

Or can any of you possibly help me? Seriously I'm starting to lose it. I don't know what to do.

i know NOTHING about A/T, but im sure a picture of the leak would help out A LOT.

I can't see the exact spot it's leaking from, unless it's coming from the underside of the one hose I can see that looks suspicious. There's a pan underneath the suspicious hose and I can see the fluid running down the pan and dripping out onto the ground, I just can't tell if it's coming from that hose or farther forward, underneath the radiator. I'll have it up this Saturday as I'm changing the front brakes, so I'll try to see what I can find then, and take a picture if I can. I'm headed into Autozone today for the brake pads, I'm gonna see if they by some miracle have a chilton's manual cause it'd be nice to have a diagram of where this infamous radiator to transmission hose is, and I haven't been able to find anything online.

I'd begin to question the replacement transmission. Find where its leaking from, the cooling lines, fluid pan, axels, bell housing. Broken seals perhaps, sealants. You may have gotten a bunk transmission. So find out more about that transmission.

Also no forward gears sounds like a shift solenoid issue.

EDIT
theres a link to a full celica manual floating around here somewhere on the forum, but i dont think its by toyota

This post has been edited by neKronos: Apr 19, 2007 - 12:31 PM

Here's what I can see right now:

This is looking down from the top, the suspicious electrical tape covered hose is in the middle. I'm pretty sure even tho it's suspicious looking, it's not the culprit here, cause you can see the fluid up on the pan more towards the radiator and I highly doubt it's running uphill.



And this is what my camera sees when I lower it in and point it back towards the underside of the radiator. That's the same electrical tape covered hose running across the foreground there.



It's pretty clear that the fluid is leaking from under the radiator somewhere, I just can't see around corners so I don't know where.

(Edit: lol, I just realized this second picture was upside-down. I flipped it so it's right now. I apologize, it's been a fantastic day and I'm a bit braindead.)

This post has been edited by FairyRebel: Apr 19, 2007 - 1:03 PM

so let me get this straight, he swapped in a new trans? well then YES HE DID MESS WITH THOSE LINES! my guess is that he forgot to unhook them when he started to drop the trans and damaged them. the part with hose...with the car off pull the lines out of the rubber. my bet is that theres two broken ends in there. you'll need new trans lines most likely. if you want get a lawyer, but its probably not worth it. refuse to pay because he could not complete the work to your satisfaction and get all the damage/misrepair documented by a competent mechanic incase the moron tries to persue action against you. its obvious to me that he messed up.