Tonight I was driving up a mountain dirt road for about 10 miles or less at about 20 mph. The road is fairly steep and bumpy but not extreme. I went to put my foot on the gas to accelerate at one point while driving and the car did not respond. I parked the car and turned it off and tried again in Reverse and Drive and no response. The RPMs went up but the car did not move. I then got out of the car and saw transmission fluid was all over the road and under my car. The car has not previously leaked at all. I put a whole bottle of transmission fluid in it and started it and it sputtered and spewed liquid but I was able to drive it normal about 200 yards before the same thing happened. I ended up having to leave my car in the mountains and will get it towed in the morning. Anyone have any ideas what might be wrong and more importantly how expensive it will be to fix??!?!? I am slightly panicking!
First step is to get the car towed out of there. Do not drive it as transmissions do not take well to being operated dry. Best guess is that a cooling line got ripped off on the bumpy road. The point where the fluid is spewing out is the problem area. If it is a hose the repair is easy, if the pan has a hole in it more expensive. Both repairs are cheap compared to replacing the transmission.
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As you found 1 quart may not do much, even if you had 5 quarts you probably would not have gotten much farther, Let us know what the diagnosis is.