I have had no problem with my transmission then Thursday night, after stopping at a stop sign when I went to take off, it wouldn’t move I finally tried 3 no luck, went down to 2 it moved, after getting up to speed I was able to slide in back into drive, but every time I stopped I would have to drop it back down to 2, Friday morning they added fluid to it, when I left for work I had to drop it down to 1, when I tried to shift it back up to drive it wouldn’t go, can a transmission go out that quick or could it be something else?
Can a transmission go out that quick?
Short answer, Yes. Heat is the number one cause for a transmission burning up. A unit low on fluid is exposed to even more heat and would hurry the process. That being said, in most cases if the transmission is burned up the fluid color will be dark and have a burnt smell. If the fluid looks nice and clean then the odds are it is an issue with the valve body solenoids.
How to check transmission fluid color
Finally, using a white paper towel dab a little bit of fresh transmission fluid on it. This will give you something to compare the current fluid color to. No add a little bit of the cars transmission fluid next to the clean on the paper towel and compare.