Hi Everyone,
On a recent a Tennessee vacation, the Smokie mountains got the best of our transmission...

The MDX will not take off in D3-D5 but will start in 1, 2, or R.
Once moving (from 2nd gear), I can shift to D3-5 and it drives & shifts totally fine, like nothing happened.
Drove 10+ hours home this way.
D5 light is not blinking and there are no error codes (with ODB scanner & torque app).

The problem happened suddenly. I stopped at a stop sign and it coasted backward instead of going forward.
I'll admit, I found the ATF 2.5 quarts low.
I also smelled ATF after climbing some steep hills (and was hoping the transmission would hold up).
I was thinking maybe the angle of the car caused the ATF to pool towards the back of the tranny & burn up the front?

Time to start shopping for a "new" transmission?

FYI, I have 170K mi. on it.

Thanks for any help/advice you can offer!

 

Does the fluid smell like absolute shit? How does it look? Check the coolant reservoir, is there milky fluid in there? These are known for internal radiator failure and mixing coolant and ATF.

04 was much better as far as A/T failure goes compared to the 01-02's

 

ATF is brown (+ the red I filled up with). Smells burnt but not terrible.
Coolant is clean blue/green.

Thanks