Whats the odds that i damaged my transmission?

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Mar 25, 2025 | 09:49 AM
  #1  
Early this morning on the way to work, I smelled tranny fluid and instantly knew it was cvt, the car stopped moving completely but i was able to pull to the side of the highway, the drivers side trans cooler came out(silly me changed the radiator and forgot to pull the clamp back down). So i secured the clamp back to the trans and poured in the rest of the cvt fluid i had in the trunk, still wouldn’t move. Got towed off the highway and bought 2 courts of cvt, the trans came back to life after i poured it in, but it drags accelerating from a stop but than runs perfect when it switches ratios, its not over revving or nothing, no cvt light. When I top it back off completely after work do you guys think it will go back operating like normal? I know 2 quarts is no where near the capacity, so im hoping its just still low. Im gonna fill it up after work later.
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Mar 25, 2025 | 09:51 AM
  #2  
Also, I had to drive it roughly 6 miles to work, on the streets no the highway, and it ran good, just alittle drag from a stop, which im hoping is due to the trans level being low.
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Mar 25, 2025 | 01:24 PM
  #3  
All you can really do is top off the fluid and see how it acts, if you lost only 2 liters and it doesn't act off or sluggish after it's likely fine

Had the same thing couple years ago with one of my traditional automatics, trans cooler line busted in half on the highway and I smelled ATF. Tried to back up into a parking stall and had no reverse from the fluid loss, got it towed and tossed on a new cooler line and topped off the 2-3 liters of fluid I lost and it was fine lol
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Mar 25, 2025 | 05:05 PM
  #4  
I topped the fluid off after work and the car drove very good the entire 25 mile trip home! And that was both stop and go and highway, I guess i got lucky lol, Ill update if anything changes.
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Mar 26, 2025 | 03:50 PM
  #5  
99% I would say no damage, automatics take quite a bit of fluid and 1-2 litres down isn't enough to cause damage. If something was cooked it would have shown up by now
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