what's the worst that could happen

ok When your stuck in the snow or mud what is the worst that can happen to the transmission When your shifting back and forth throw the grears? Going from (R) reverse to (D) drive. I understand that with the fluid going one way then suddenly going the other way is not healthy. by the way i am talking about a Automaic transmission.

One other problem on a differnt topicis: i have that 91 corsica and the power stereing has no fluid in it. i asked my teacher if it will ever wear out and he said no. that is not the problem, when i go to poor power stereing fluid into in there, will air bubbles get caught in the lines?

 

Spinning back and forth in snow is horrible for a transmission. It overheats the fluid extremely fast and you can burn up your tranny in no time. Add a tranny cooler for more protection.

On your steering issue:
If you have no fluid in the system, it will dry out and burn up your rack and pinion and pump. The seals in the system needs to be lubricated by this steering fluid.

Add your steering fluid and crank the wheel back and forth, add more, repeat. This will get all the air bubbles out.

 

The worst thing that can happen: the trans blows out, and you freeze to death stuck in the snow.

2. The PS pump will burn up quickly with no fluid. And yes, air can get in the lines, but turning the wheel from lock to lock several times usually gets all the air out.

 

ok, i ask my auto mechanics teacher. He told me that the bearings are external on the pump and that the pump would be fine. he said that the rack and pinion would be ok to, but i do see what you mean buy the seals. i have been driving this car for over a month and had no problems with the power stereing. i this one of the hoses leak, and havent had the time to fix it yet.

 

You're "teacher" needs to be reminded it's the VANES IN the pump that burn out rendering the pump USELESS.........GM's of that era were notorious for what was lovingly refered to as "Morning Sickness".........When the power steering spool valve seals hardened and the power steering..........even WITH fluid........was inop until the car warmed up
As for the trans........The fluid only travels in ONE direction........It's the components INSIDE the trans that are applied snd released that make for forward and reverse...........The heat generated by doing this repeatedly can easily shorten the transmissions life..........or kill it dead

 

worst case scenario:

the car catches on fire and burns up.

I know, everybody is going to say no way. Well, this isn't exactly the same but this happened next door to a friend of mine.

some yahoo got his escalade stuck in the snow/mud. neighbor comes out with his gimmy to pull him out. He gets stuck. Trying to work it out,, somehow it catches fire. Local fire department has a hard time even getting to it with their "brush truck". gimmy burns up, catches the escalade on fire. it burns up too, total loss.

the funniest part is the guy in the gimmy was getting ready to go hunting or target shooting or something and had a LOT of ammo in the jimmy. Friend said it was like fireworks going off. That's when everybody ran for cover which was shortly before the gas tank exploded.

so, worst case scenario? apparenlty pretty bad.

oh, and that morning sickness thing with the GM's. saw a car that the steering wheel would yank out of your hand and spin to one side (and pretty fast too) . after things warmed up it was okay until the next morning. The teflon seals actually it wasn;t the seals, it was the aluminum housing itself that wore. rebuilds put a stainless steel sleeve in). Pretty funny....if it wasn;t your car and you didn;t have your arm in the wheel when you started the car.

 

wow thats is some serious stuff i never thought that could ever happen with a transmission. i have only gottin my car stuck 4 times so far. i am going to put some ps fluid in my car tonight and hope it will still be ok. (besides the fack that it still leaks some were)

 

If you read these fourms often you will find a post from about 2 weeks ago were a poor soul caught his car on fire doing the same thing.
Very costly.

 

i have a 91 chevy corsica i don't like to do this i keep getting a flat. should the donut tire go on the rear, on my front wheel drive car?

thanks Brad

 

Donut goes on rear that is correct. Hard on trannie with two diffreant sizes on on it.

 

ok i have a new high pressure line on the car and it does not leak any more.
thanks again the car still whines a little.

 

Automatic trannies are far from cheap. If you break it, you will be looking for a new car.

 

I know this post is frow a while back but i will update you guys on what has happened so far. Back to my power steering pump. I guess i should have fixed that sooner than what we did. Right now it uses power stering fluid and is louder that the engine when running. I plan on changing the pump some time. but for right now i will keep adding fluid.

 

Did you follow the suggestion of turn the wheel lock to lock? This "burps" the system and may well quiet the whine. With the engine running, crank the steering wheel full right and hold it there for a few seconds, then turn it full left and hold it , repeat the process and see if it quiets down.

 

No i never did try that. Should i do this with the cap off? as i was working on it i still could not fing where is was leaking at. i have to keep adding fluid to it.

but i did find out that yesterday that it was not power steering pump that is going out it is my water pump. It has been this why for a good half year has not broke yet. it moves 1inch up and down.

 

Your water pump has an inch of play in it??? Keep the number for your favorite tow guy handy if you keep driving it (and some extra cash for the associated parts that get destroyed when it fails catastrophically).

 

i drove the car to auto zone and bought a cheap rebuilt water pump anyways now i am just waiting for it to cool down.