I have a 2002 cadillac deville dts I was driving down the street and white smoke.started to come from under the hood, I pulled over and opened the hood. There was transmission fluid alll over the drivers side of the cooling fan the air filter cover I dont know where it was coming from.after a while I started it up and nothing was coming out so I drove it home and by that time it had spayed out again just like before.what happened? Can I fix this myself or do I need to put it in the shop?
How would you go about fixing it yourself when you don’t know where the leak is. We don’t know where the leak is either because we can’t see your car.
best guess, something broke.
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Are you sure its transmission fluid…its usually red. Check your coolant level and make sure its full.
cadillac and fluid leak? not the dreaded coolant leak due to headgaskets i hope. if the radiator fails and mixes trans fluid with coolant than you will destroy the trans and certainly feel poor shifting and may see fluid coming out of trans fill port. but if you have a fluid spray inside engine compartment i would lean towards a ruptured line. maybe a p/s line from the high mounted p/s pump?
No, I doubt you can fix this yourself . Find an independent shop you don’t need a dealer for a 16 year old vehicle.
The transmission generates a lot of heat from friction, so the fluid has to be cooled. If it isn’t cooled, it will boil over. On smaller cars it is usually cooled by the radiator, but on some bigger engines there’s often a transmission cooler involved also. I expect your problem has something to do w/that system. Maybe a tube has rusted or become disconnected between the transmission and the radiator for example. It’s going to require a shop inspection. It may be you can fix it yourself once you know what’s wrong. Make sure the trans fluid level is ok before driving again.