I went over a very steep very twisty road yesterday. Constant forced downshift from 2 to 1, shift up, shift down. Rough road, slow speeds. After about a half mile of this I began to think I wouldnt make it or was overheating the transmission. Could it have been starved for fluid, being nearly vertical? I thought I smelled clutch packs burning. No flares though.

IS any of this possible or am I just hypervigilant about the transmission? It works well in the valleys except for no kickdown. Fluid level seems ok.

pull the dipstick, smell the fluid....smells burnt? change it with filter and hope you're good

no burn smell? don't worry about it. the chances of you smelling clutch packs burning in your trans is unlikely.

you're in a car with, for lack of better words, no balls (85 190D?), it'll keep downshifting to keep you moving. the trans will take it just fine. these cars go through much worse terrain in various areas of the world and hold up fine with little to no service. you'll be OK

__________________
Allen Kroliczek
Oak Grove Autosport | Oak Grove Autosport
01 G500, 82 300TD, quite a few more.....

I added a sensor to monitor transmission temperature in order to know exactly what is going on. I'm kind of a monitoring enthusiast - I also monitor boost, EGT, intake temp, oil temp, vacuum, fuel pressure, volts, engine bay temp and engine elapsed time. It's comforting to have early warning of problems and keep conditions within limits.

__________________
Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica