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How screwed am I?

D

Dancing Bear

New member
Long story short, radiator failed internally and mixed my trans fluid with coolant and coolant with trans fluid.

I was driving home the other night, and my trans started acting weird. It would jerk while in drive, which at first I thought was a misfire. Then as I got closer to home, it started whining and slipping when I made left handed turns. Not sure why only left turns and not right ... anyways I got it home and opened the overflow to find a delicious strawberry milkshake-looking mixture in there.

It didn't taste as good as it looked, which was disappointing. I only drove about 3 miles with the tranny in this condition, and the slipping and whining did not occur until the last half mile or so.

I changed the radiator, and completely flushed the engine to remove the pink goopy stuff.
I plan on doing a pan drop, driving the car to a trans shop and having the fluid power flushed.

The filter has about 2000 miles on it since the last pan drop, should I change it before or after the power flush or leave it alone?

I know these transmissions are about as strong as glass, so...
Long story short: How screwed am I?
 


I wouldn't stick a fork in it just yet. Wouldn't take it to a shop either. Use the trans pump to "flush" it. Sounds like you're pretty mechanically inclined, so here's what I would do...

1.) Drop pan. Change filter. They're cheap.
2.) Button it back up. Dump in a gallon and a half of ATF. Do NOT start it yet.
3.) Remove return cooler line, direct it into a drain pan
4.) Run engine 3 seconds at a time until fluid looks good/clean. Remember to replace whatever fluid you pump out
5.) Re-attach cooler line. Top off fluid.

Monitor the fluid condition. You may need to change fluid one more time to get all the coolant out. It may not work, but I'd roll the dice on $40 worth of fluid vs whatever a trans shop would charge.
 
BrandonHall10 said:
I wouldn't stick a fork in it just yet. Wouldn't take it to a shop either. Use the trans pump to "flush" it. Sounds like you're pretty mechanically inclined, so here's what I would do...

1.) Drop pan. Change filter. They're cheap.
2.) Button it back up. Dump in a gallon and a half of ATF. Do NOT start it yet.
3.) Remove return cooler line, direct it into a drain pan
4.) Run engine 3 seconds at a time until fluid looks good/clean. Remember to replace whatever fluid you pump out
5.) Re-attach cooler line. Top off fluid.

Monitor the fluid condition. You may need to change fluid one more time to get all the coolant out. It may not work, but I'd roll the dice on $40 worth of fluid vs whatever a trans shop would charge.
Click to expand...
I was gonna say flush it and see how it does after that but brandon beat me to it, and in greater detail.

Flush it, don't panic, monitor it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 
How common is this? This is like the 3-4 time hearing about this and about 2-3rd one I have actually seen in the junkyard where the internal cooler has failed?

Jeff
 
It's common, but uncommon at the same time.

So many vehicles (cars anyway) run this style of cooler, the older the car gets the more prone to a failure like this. But thats not to say a new radiator couldn't have the same issue. I've only seen this happen a handful of times in the shop and saying why or how it happened is hard to explain to someone.
 
I have seen it a time or 2 in the past on other cars (late 70's-80's) but when I went to the JY to pull the cover for the accumulator cover I ran into several that were this way. Wonder if they were running straight water for some time?

Jeff
 


Well I'll try my best not to panic until then, I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me. I'll do this tonight when I get home. My only question is.. which line is the return line? I can trace it back to the tranny, I just need to know if its the line that attaches to the top or bottom of the radiator. Many thanks to you gentlemen
 
when we flushed my brothers truck tranny the how to said to use a clear tube off the tranny line, when you see air bubbles in the line turn the engine off, install more new fluid, repeat till clean fluid comes out.
 
I'm happy to report that I flushed it and it seems to be working just fine at the moment! It took 16.5 quarts of fluid to completely flush that nasty mix out, but she's got a new filter and fresh fluid. Thank you guys for your help, it was greatly appreciated. =)
 
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