I'm a f***en idiot...

[Road-Rocket]

I decided to do an oil change today since the car needed it. It is my fist time doing it and I f***ed up. Instead of draining the oil from the engine, I ended up draining the oil from the transmition. Its an auto. On top of that, not only did I drain the trans fluid, I also put another 3 quarts of oil in the engine, which I thought I drained. No wonder my dipstick was showing oil level way above normal. Here's the worst part, I took the car for a drive with all that oil in the engine and no fluid in the transmition. I drove it for 5 minutes around the block. I noticed that the car tried to stall everytime I shifted from P or N to D. That's when I knew the I did something wrong. I took a look below the engine and that's when I realized WTF that I f***ed up.

Now, you can go ahead and start laughing at me. I deserve it. But as soon as you're done, I'd like to know the following. Is it possible that I damaged my transmition by running it for 5 mins without fluid? I didn't hear anything break, just noticed the car wanted to stall when shifting from N to D. How bad is it to drive your car with 3 quarts of oil more than the normal? I'm going to drain the oil and do it again. The right way of course But did I cause any type of damage to the engine by putting so much oil in it? And last, I'll be doing a search on this one but, before refilling the trans fluid, do I need to change the filter as well? Or can I go ahead and refill the trans fluid just like that? Any info will be greatly appreciated. This makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[will90Eclipse]

It is never good to run a car without tranny fluid for any amount of time, I would fill it back up and not worry about it unless you start hearing noises or something. As for the oil hopefully you still changed it when you got home.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

I have a fairly rudamentary understanding of automatic transmissions, but since there is no metal to metal contact in one (the fluid is what spins the two halves, think of a propeller in water) you might be ok with just filling it back up with some auto tranny fluid.

Drain your oil pan, since theres ~6-7 quarts of oil in it. Fill it (3-4 quarts) with some regular 10w-30 or whatever you like, and fill up that tranny (with tranny fuid of course). Theres going to no way to tell if you broke it until you try.

Good luck!

 

[sumenlo]

ya, usually auto tranny's aren't hurt if they're run without any fluid. I used to have a 1997 f-150 with an auto tranny in it that we had just dropped in. We had to fill it up with fluid since it didn't come with any. I filled it up some, then tried to drive it. Basically, the tranny wouldn't shift into gear cuz it didn't have enough fluid in it. You should be okay. As far as overfilling with oil, you might have possibly blow cam seals and what not. Just check for leaks and be really cautious over the next couple weeks.

 

[turboinside]

I would change the tranny filter and pan gasket while you are at it! Mabey even put in some good fluid like B&M trick shift. As far as your oil goes, If you got into the throttle a bit, Then that much oil could blow pan gaskets, valve cover gasket, and a list of others. If you didn't get on it though you might be safe. Keep an eye on it for a while just in case! Good luck

 

[IHeartTurbo]

there is no metal to metal contact in one.

Yes, there is. There is no physical contact in the torque converter, but there is in the transmission itself.

 

[Road-Rocket]

I just drained and refilled the engine oil with 10W-30 and put a new oil filter. I also went ahead and refilled the trans fluid with 4 quarts of B&M Trick fluid and took it for a drive. Brought it back and re-checked the tranny fluid following directions on a thread I found. All the levels for tranny and engine are now normal. I took the car for a ride and the tranny is shifting flawlessly. Even better than before I drained the old fluid. As far as the engine oil goes, when I had it over-filled I did get on it for one run (20 secs at the most) and then let off. Everything is good now, but I will keep an eye on it just in case. I hope I didn't damage any seals. Thanks for all the input though.

Miguel

 

[fwdturbobov1996]

Ouch dont worry sooner or later your going to be able to pull that tranny. ! Hopefully I dont make that mistake i just put mine back in.

 

[WhiteCharisma]

dont feel bad dude at least u didnt crack the block on ur car like my friend did because he tightened the oil filter with a wrench on his 87 turbo supra ..now thats stupid in my opinion!!!

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Yes, there is. There is no physical contact in the torque converter, but there is in the transmission itself.

my bad, I was being pretty vague. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Superbeast406]

Instead of draining the oil from the engine, I ended up draining the oil from the transmition. Its an auto. On top of that, not only did I drain the trans fluid, I also put another 3 quarts of oil in the engine, which I thought I drained.

Thats a classic mistake. This is why lots of car manufacturers don't put drain plugs in their transmissions. You'll be lucky if that tranny didn't suffer any permanant damage. I would change the screen in it to be safe. If the car was vibrating a lot when you drove it, thats from the excess load of oil on the crank shaft. If it was vibrating enough to notice, you might have scarred some bearings. The excess oil messes with the balancing and harmonics of the crank. Then again you may have gotten of scott free, if you caught it soon enough.

 

[Road-Rocket]

Thats a classic mistake. This is why lots of car manufacturers don't put drain plugs in their transmissions. You'll be lucky if that tranny didn't suffer any permanant damage. I would change the screen in it to be safe. If the car was vibrating a lot when you drove it, thats from the excess load of oil on the crank shaft. If it was vibrating enough to notice, you might have scarred some bearings. The excess oil messes with the balancing and harmonics of the crank. Then again you may have gotten of scott free, if you caught it soon enough.

I didn't feel any vibrations when I drove the car with that much oil in it. I only drove the car for like 5 mins before I noticed my mistake. Now that all fluids are normal, the car feels really good. Even better than before the fluids were exchange. I don't know if there is a way to tell if anything is damaged, but so far there are no oil leaks.

 

[dsm4life]

all i have to say is..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA but you knew that was coming. Like everyone said ride the tranny and see how she feels but should be fine. the thing i would have worried about was all that extra oil but again its seals that it might have blown just check for leaks for the next week or so.

Its ok i remember when i was new to cars and i was filling my brothers radiator fluid up ...well trying to. I was looking about the engine bay and im like where does this go. OH here it is (big white bottle new to the radiator) and filled it up. It was the windshield washer fluid bottle!!! HAHAHAHAH not my car but i drained it for him. hehe

 

[92GSXman]

Did the same thing on my wife's 93 Corolla back in the day. It didn't hurt a thing and she drove it like 5 minutes, she said the tranny kept popping out of gear on her and she knew something was wrong. I felt like a dumb ass but hey, you've got to start some where right?

But then again I guess you really can't compare a DSM to a Toyota. Hopefully it'll be OK!

 

[Road-Rocket]

I feel like a dumbass because I've done more difficult things to my car like changing shocks and springs, injectors, icpipes, brakes and rotors, plus a few more things, then I f**k up on my first time doing the oil change which is one of the easiest things you can do to your car for maintanence.

 

[93 GSX TURBO]

did you take to make sure thats how many quarts it takes? my GSX takes 7 1/2 wort of trans fluid. i chnaged that filter and did 7 valvoline ATF 3 and 1/2 of lucas stop slip, that stuff works great, stopped alot of my slipping

 

[98TalonTSi]

Just keep a close eye on the car and constantly check/smell the transmission fluid.
Even though you accidentally drained it, if you really only did drive it for five minutes around the block, there still should've been enough fluid left to allow the clutches to still slide and not just clash metal on metal....Good Luck, and be more careful.
Mike