Last week I got home and noticed I had an oil leak. Upon further inspection I noticed that the upper hose that connects to the radiator had disconnected. So I left the car in the driveway and fixed it the next day.
Last night the girlfriend came over and I was running late to work so I jumped in the car and sped off. Upon pulling into work I noticed smoking coming out of my hood and quick checked it... Same oil leak! The bolt I used to replace the one that had fallen out previously had fallen out, but this time it was gushing oil.
During my break I jammed the hose back into the radiator, filled up my oil and began to drive home.
As I began to back out I noticed the car was acting funny. Then when I put the car into drive it wouldn't move. It just sat there until I gave it a little gas then it slowly crept. I ended up creeping my way home, never passing 30mph.
So for the past four hours I've been degreasing all the old oil off of the engine, doing an oil change, cleaning the air filter because oil got all over it, and seafoamed the car.
I have no idea what the problem could be. I drove the car around the block, but now it hesitates when I put it into drive and takes a second before it begins to creep forward. Other than that it seems to be driving fine. Any suggestions?

97 a4 quattro. automatic 143k miles

 

if you drive the car without transmission fluid you blow the transmission pretty quick.
im not exactly sure what happened - the upper radiator hose has coolant in it, but you said after connecting it you filled up your oil. were you talking about your transmission fluid cooler, fluid, and hose?

 

No it's the hose that connects to the radiator that has oil in it. I def wasn't riding around without tranny fluid! But no I plan on doing a transmission fluid change and a filter change tomorrow. and small update, I think I blew the turbo...

 

Edit..

Crap, that line goes to the transmission fluid!? Well that explains a lot, I'm going to the dealership to get a new filter and ATF today. Well thanks for the help ghost, apparently it took me a few times reading your post to get the picture... and no there must be some left in there I caught the problem pretty quickly.

 

You can order a flush kit from Blauparts and it might be a little cheaper. http://www.blauparts.com/products.asp?cat=1484

 

Yeah decided to get the parts seperately, totaling 120 for the fluid and 23 for the filter. New question for this, the fill plug is the 17mm hex bolt on the bottom of the oil pan, it's not on the side, correct?

 

why would the fill plug for the transmission be on the bottom of the oil pan? thats where your oil is, in the oil pan. not transmission fluid.

fill plug is on the side of the trans. the drain plug would be on the bottom. im not exactly sure about auto trans audis, but on some auto cars there is no drain plug, you take off the bottom pan on the transmission (8-12 small bolts). thats how you get to the filter on the inside. you should replace the gasket and filter when doing this. on the manual trans- the drain plug is a special security socket, unsure about the auto.

 

Well finished up refilling the fluid for now, the new filter and gasket come on sunday so that's when I'll finish that up. And ghost when I referred to the oil pan i referred to the transmission oil pan :-). And my repair manual called it a "ATF check plug" but that seemed to be the only plug on it other than the drain plug so I put the fluid in there. It seems to shift much more smoothly already so I'm pumped for the upcoming filter change. But now I have smoke coming from under the hood, I assume it's the old fluid that sprayed all over the engine, but I also noticed that the part where the turbo connects to the rest of the exhaust (exhaust manifold?) is getting very hot very quickly. Should I be concerned?