- I was looking at my mother in law’s 2005 Colbalt. She said she called a mechanic and explained the problem and thought it might be a wheel bearing. I took it for a test drive and the transmission struggles to shift out of second gear and when it finally does shift the rpms drop slowly. Like it probably takes a good five seconds until the rpms drop to what they should be for third gear. I checked the oil and there is nothing but white cream halfway up the dipstick. Finally the road noise is coming from what I believe in an exhaust manifold leak as there is no play in the wheel bearings. I’m just asking for someone who may be more knowledgeable. Does this seem like a slipping transmission on its way out and a head gasket leak? The car is driven about 70 miles a day.
In a situation like this if the engine is not producing enough power then the trans will not work as intended. Now if you drove the car and it has plenty of power then that negates the above statement I made. If so then you have two different issues. But yeah..the head has to come off and checked to see what gave out. Maybe just a head gasket then again..head may be cracked. You will only know when it gets pulled off. Another thing is do you feel its worth spending further money on this vehicle with these issues ?
That of course this a private decision but it should be thought over.
That could be very likely. Does the car overheat a lot? If you want to confirm it's a blown head gasket, use a engine block leak test - odds are that's what it is since you mentioned the oil dipstick looks milky. Unfortunately, that sounds like the transmission is breaking down. You could just drive it with the wonky transmission until it eventually stops working, but that also might be horribly inconvenient since the car gets driven a lot.
