I was driving down the road and the rpms just went up as if it was in neutral. I found it was a little low on fluid so I added more fluid. Then I drove it about 30 miles and it was fine until I noticed it did it again but this time there was smoke coming from under the hood. I found transmission fluid all over the top of the transmission. Now it will start and go in forward or reverse but only for a short period and then it will just rev the rpms. I'm just wondering if it's the transmission or just a certain part in transmission?

 

Tras is dead.
Did you top off with OEM Fluid? The ATF foaming only happens with Universal ATF which is Poison for Honda trans.

 

Classic symptom of a trans failure!

The trans gets clogged and can't get any fluid so it won't work! Once the car gets moving and the system clogs, it'll either push the fluid that can't make it past the clog out of the vent hole in the transmission or the trans will stop running.

You are going to need a rebuild or a new transmission. You can find a ton of shops that do the 2002 MDX trans as the failure rate on the 01-02 MDX transmissions was very high.

 

Yes it was oem fluid. I did notice after I did a fluid flush on it and tried to drive it the fluid was burnt in a matter of 5 minutes. I don't really have the money to have it rebuilt. I had to replace the motor about 10k miles ago. I put a used motor in it and the guy gave me another transmission but said it slipped. I didn't know if there was a certain part that I could put the 2 transmissions together and make it work.

 

Trans always fail from the same thing, this is a known issue.. If the trans he gave you was defective its more than likely that is the same parts that are damaged in both transmission..
That is the 3rd gear clutch pack drum.

IIRC the friction plates and discs are the same size in most gear drums so you could in theory replace the 3rd gear clutch pack drum with 2nd or 4th gear from your other transmission.
Is worth a shot.

 

Ok thanks. I was hoping for maybe a torque converter or a seal to be bad. But it couldn't be that easy