Help please I'm not a mechanic

So I bought a 2012 Dodge avenger everything was fine drove it home from the dealer got gas and a few hours later on my to work it shifted gears hard one time then about 2 minutes later it was like I had no gears no reverse no nothing barely pressed the gas and the the gears would wind like nothing I ever heard while the car was in park and the engine in idle I heard a loud ass pop ass my radiator line leading to my transmission blew off with avengeance without the car overheating at all I noticed the anifreeze was extremely diluted to the point it smells like water just hoping someone can give me advice on with could of happened and can it be fixed so this won’t happen again

You are basically trying to describe 2 possibly 3 problems.

You were able to drive your “New to you” Avenger with an automatic transmission…until…it would not move anymore…why? Does it have transmission fluid? Is it leaking fluid? Did you check?

The engine overheated…most likely due to that hose junction / Rad cap thing in the picture…

That Rad cap / Hose Junction thing is broken and needs replaced…it either broke on its own…or your rad system became over pressurized and basically made it fail that way…either way that junction is toast.

If you dont know what you are doing, this is actually a time when a mechanic is needed here…because the issues you are having can actually have serious causes…and only an experienced tech will be able to identify what is a simple fix and what is not here. It could go either way as I can think of both a simple and complex explanation for each of your issues. You really need to know which it is.

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The thing is the engine did NOT over heat no warning whatsoever the gauge was in the middle temp never spiked that’s y I’m confused

Could it have been a chunk of ice or something there without my knowledge causing the tranny to shutdown and overheat and not the engine?? the antifreeze looks feels and smells like 80 % water I live in Ohio and it’s been cold

You wont get a temp reading…when you have no coolant to heat up and transfer its heat quantity to the temp sensor.

The temp sensor is meant to measure temperature of a liquid…not air… if you had low or no coolant it wouldn’t register on the temp gauge.

The other scenario is that maybe you did have coolant…and you did not actually overheat…and that fitting just decided to burst …and that is all that occurred…for you…that would be great. Its possible sure.

Its also possible that rad cap junction thing broke from over pressurization…but lets try to stay with the simple scenario first, because I can provide you with a much scarier working theory on why that part failed. Hopefully we can keep the solutions simple…just know that they can get ugly.

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It could literally be ANYTHING… I have no idea the health of this vehicle… If it had the correct amount of coolant…or no coolant… Does the trans have fluid? If the fluid level drops too low…the vehicle will not move… Check the fluids…ALL of them. The trans wont work with too low fluid…but where did it go?

You have a lot of investigation to do…because until we know what is there and in what amount…we are flying blind, actually worse than flying blind.

Have you asked the seller if it was a used dealer for help. Or is this an As Is purchase . Either way you need to have this repaired by a shop .

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Fluids are all full there was fluid in the line when it blew judging by the puddles of coolant it was quite a bit so it tried to get where it needed to be i drove it twice after the initial test drive no misses no pulling no wobble nothing so the car itself seems pretty healthy can’t even really hear it idle anyway first time was for about 35 minutes and 5 or 6 hours later I drove it for ten minutes and boom and it’s the pink coolant if that means anything

You really need someone to look at this vehicle for you. Honestly there is too much going on to be able to coach you via the internet, too many variables, too many scenarios… it would take 3 years to assist via a computer desk.

If your transmission fluid is FULL and your shift cable hasn’t snapped (which you should easily feel via the shift lever)…then you may have big problems in the transmission.

It would be better to hear that you had little to no trans fluid because that would then be an easy fix to get the transmission to move the vehicle again.

You really need the assistance of an experienced wrench for this instance…there are a lot of things going on simultaneously…and now is not the time to misinterpret these issues / symptoms.

I suggest that you immediately contact the dealer who sold you that Avenger and discuss how they plan to take care of the problem.The longer you wait the more the problem becomes yours.

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