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Re: trans problem
Im curious how you know it is transmission fluid? Its more common to find motor oil getting into the coolant, and creating a scummy coating on the surface of the coolant in the overflow bottle. This often means a head gasket is starting to go bad.
But if its really tranny fluid, (AFT) that would indicate the transmission oil cooling heat exchanger inside the radiator has a leak. The tranny fluid getting into the cooling system is not such a problem; you should (without driving the car) get the radiator fixed and flush the cooling system, run a cleaner through it, replace with new coolant - and hope the tranny fluid didnt do much to the inside of the hoses running to the heater. The top and bottom radiator hoses you would just change. If its only been a day or so, I would think the engine will be okay. The seal in the water pump may or may not get softened due to the transmission fluid. The only way I would know to find out would be by driving the car and keeping an eye out for coolant loss, or puddles under the car after having been parked overnight.
The bigger problem could be that you probably have some engine coolant getting into the transmission. When the engine is up to temperature, there is up to 16 psi pressure in the radiator. I would think this would be enough to force some coolant into the tranny cooling heat exchanger, and which would then get pumped into the transmission. I would have the tranny fluid drained, replace it with new ATF, and drain that also after a very few minutes of driving. Then I would replace it again with fresh ATF. After a few minutes of driving with the new fluid in it - have a look at what is on the dipstick. If its just ATF color, with no sudsy look to it - you may be okay.
Beyhond that I would just keep driving it, but avoid any long trips for about 1,000 miles of local driving.
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10-08-2008, 06:48 PM
