09Rdx

My 09 RDX has broken the transmission due to the coolant and transmission fluid mixing together. I’m wondering if my engine is also done? I was jumping onto the highway when I felt really hard shifts from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd but rode fine in 4th and 5th. I heard some really loud crushing noises and was just hoping to make it out the highway. When I got out and hit the first red light the car completely stopped, was smoking, leaked what looked like strawberry milkshake all over the road and never turned on again. Since the tranny fluid and coolant mixed could it have gone in the engine and broken something?

yanga001

The transmission is linked to the engine via a viscous coupling so i doubt the engine is toast in the sense that the engine block, turbo, etc were destroyed. If you overheated you could blow a head gasket depending on how compromised the coolant was. Did the coolant look like a strawberry milkshake from its reservoir or did the transmission fluid from the dipstick.

I have heard of people saving it previously when these kinds of things happen on other vehicles if its caught early. I would say at minimum your transmission is toast. If you want to keep the car then you need a new transmission. Check your engine oil for its colour and the coolant, if your coolant reservoir looks like a good colour then i would not worry too much about overheat and the fluids mixing. If it looks like a bad colour then get a mechanic or someone who knows these vehicles to check the engine over.

To change a transmission would likely require pulling your engine so it is an involved process. The positive is that any engine maintenance could be completed with ease with the engine out.

Best of luck

MtnRDX

This design is very very stupid and unnecessary. PERIOD.

They can argue all they want about warming up the fluid and cooling it. Truth is though, all it ever needed was a separate trans cooler. If being sold in a very frigid climate it could have had a bypass valve installed to bypass the cooler until a particular temp was reached, just like a thermostat does for the coolant.

These are the kinds of stupid designs and failures that warrant class action lawsuits and mass recalls to correct the stupid design. Acura/Honda and Nissan/Infinity are guilty of this stupidity. There may be more.

I keep worrying about this on my 07 RDX. I can't decide rather to just premtivley change out the radiator with some other brand? Or try to figure out a way to separate it and install a regular cooler. Im not sure it's possible?