Questions and Answers

Buying A Chrysler Lebaron Q. I am looking into the purchase of a 1990 Chrysler Lebaron with a V-6. My concern is with the automatic transaxle, the buyer has let me know that he added 10W-30 motor oil to the transmission, one or two bottles, he cannot remember. What kind of problems has he created by this unfortunate error?

Is this an error that I can fix in my own garage or do I need to take it to a repair shop?

Thank you for your help,
Christopher

A. Let's assume the worst and say he put two quarts of motor oil in the transmission.

That transmission holds four quarts of fluid, so half of what's in there is motor oil. Chances are nothing terrible is going to happen. You can drain out what is in there and refill with clean, fresh ATF. You would need to do this a couple of times because not all of the transmission fluid will come out.

So if you are a gambling man, you can roll the dice on any long term damage. Me? I'm not a gambler. There are too many other good used cars to buy out there without buying one with a potential problem.