plaza80

I tried my best to search but only found 2 related threads and both of them never really answered the issue. I was driving and merging into a highway. Accelerated slightly to get to 60mph when I looked back and saw white smoke. I was about 87 degrees that day. I looked at my water temp and everything is fine. I was going 65 and after a while no smoke so I thought I was seeing things. Sure enough as I got off the highway, stopped at a red light, accelerated on green and poof, white smoke again. Parked the car a pile of trans fluid under my car. Now moving the car back and forth there's a delay and doesn't engage much because of the loss of fluid. My trans seems to still shift into drive smooth. I live in an apartment so hard for me to jack it up and look underneath until this weekend when I can tow it to my dads. While opening the hood there is a lot of fluid between the trans and the radiator and leaking down. Earlier I moved my car from one parking spot to another. There was a big puddle of fluid on the old parking spot and seems like the leak stopped. As I moved to a different spot fluid leaked some more. Now it is parked and it's dripping a lot again. Seems when motor is running it is shooting fluid somewhere in the region of between the trans and radiator.

I pray it's a minor hose leak or something like that and not my transmission is toast.

Ossman14

andrewg

Year and model? Mileage and services completed? Some cars have transmission cooler lines that have been known to break off at the radiator.

quantum7

Yeah....check the transmission fluid lines at base of radiator.

white smoke always scares me.....classic sign of blown head gasket. If radiator and transmission fluid lines look ok....check for Any foam under oil fill cap? You could also do a head gasket chemical test to see if combustion gases in cooling system.

plaza80

2008 Acura TL-S. Hasn't had maintenance done since I got it at 105k and it's at 120k. It's not a head gasket. Even now it purrs when fired up and when I put in drive it'll take a bit but itll move slowly. Able to put in drive and reverse easily. I think it would be the radiator/transmission line you guys are referring to.

Chad05TL

ya, white smoke and oil and water dripping down, as he said.
Sounds like something is cracked or lost a seal.. definitely structural.
Can easily check for milky substance in the oil by looking at the dipstick. If milky or snotty, then likely head gasket. Typically I dont think the 3rd gen TL has head gasket issues. But if any car gets hot and overheats, then well, all bets are off.. Anything can happen.

TAZ1811

read my post from today 7.25.2018

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...ke-off-971863/

plaza80

Update everyone. Hope this can help others in the future. It was my radiator since the trans fluid goes into it to cool it down. Luckily my brother has a buddy that is an Acura Mechanic so I took it to him. I couldn't hear him well but he said this is a common problem with MDX but pretty rare with TL's. He said my year TL (2008 TL-S) is one of the best transmission as far as not coming in for issues so he said right off the bat without looking at it that it's probably not my transmission. Apparently there is a pipe and valve off the radiator and it broke off. There may be a slight chance I got coolant into my transmission as to why I got the white smoke. So all he did was change the radiator and flush the trans. I got lucky he hooked me up so it cost me $280 for the new radiator with his discount and he charged me $200 under the table. Car is running just fine now

Acura TL Builder