Hello again. I recently posted a suspicion that my A4 had blown up. In fact I don't think it has, but I do have an issue and I'd like your advice. Any help is appreciated because I'm truly a novice :o

OK recently I had my radiator replaced. Shortly thereafter I noticed my transmission slipping as I would go up hills, around 2200RPM. It would jump a few hundred and back down again, but the engine didn't surge when it was in neutral.

Well today a friend suggested maybe they didn't tighten/install correctly the transmission cooling lines and I had lost fluid. Well sure enough I checked in the front and there was ATF not only dripping everywhere but it was slung halfway down under the car past the front tire. Bright red ATF dripping from the new radiator. I checked the connections and they seemed tight to me (at least hand tight). So the next thing that crossed my mind was the trans might have been overfilled and the extra pressure was causing it to leak. Well like a dummy I jacked up the back and took off the atf plug, sure enough atf comes pouring out (mind you everything was cold at this point and the car had been sitting for almost a week). I figure I have about half a quart I caught and about a cup on the ground. Maybe a quart lost total before it stopped. Thinking I was god's gift to C5 technicians I replaced the plug, fired it up and started backing out of my driveway. Uh oh, major slippage. I just put it in D and drove back up.

So here's what I'm guessing, and beleive me I'm guessing here. I think something is wrong with the trans cooler line connections, and I'm leaking like crazy there, so the fluid was low. I didn't follow the correct check procedure and I pulled the plug so now it's mighty low. So basically I need to a) find out where/why its leaking and 2) follow the correct procedure in this post http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...51&postcount=4

Does this sound correct/reasonable? I even took a few pics with my phone so I could document my foolishness. Also I picked up some Mobil 1 DEXTRON-III synthetic because the manual said something about always using synthetic dex-3. Can I jsut add this to my dealer fill transmission, or do I need to check what they filled it with and match it?

I have no buisness working on cars. But if you want to help me with some wisdom (for a vette's sake) it will be appreciated, and if you're ever in Newport News, VA I'll even buy you a beer.

Thanks!
Jeff

 

Sorry about the big pics, I just wanted to get something posted for you guys quick.

Drip, drip, drip... looking up at the connection to the radiator



Here's the plug I drained from. It's the right one, right? All gone!



I need to put this back.

 

Ok, 1st of all the stock auto trans pan has NO drain plug and judging by the pics you posted you pulled the fill plug.

To correctly check your fluid level you must make sure that the car is securely up on jack stands and as level as possible.

First you should probably unhook the trans lines at the rad and wipe clean then apply teflon tape before re-attaching them, as they are clearly leaking.

Then start the car and warm it up, eventually bringing the trans temp up to I think 160 min, you can view the trans temp using the gauges button on your dash.

Once up to min temp select each gear one by one pausing in each gear before selecting the next, I like to do this a couple of times.

After performing the above, put the trans in park and set parking brake while leaving the car running and crawl back under the car and remove the fill plug.

If fluid runs out it`s overfilled so let it run out (into a pan) until it stops, the fluid at running temp should be just below the fill plug hole.

Otherwise you`ll need a cheap hand pump to add fluid until just below the fill plug hole.

Obviously if you don`t have the tools/experience you should have your car towed to a reputable shop that knows Corvettes.

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

Thanks for the advce RP, I'm going to try again tonight. I have a feeling they cross threaded the connections and didn't use any teflon tape.

 

In that case you need to stop everything your doing and return it back to them now, if you take the lines loose and they are cross threaded then you will never be able to prove that they damaged the lines and you'll be responsible for repairing it.

 

stop the leaking, get the fill level right, and you should be good. I had a trans cooler line burst on the last few miles of a 13 hr. road trip to Fl. and when I pulled it over (my '93 Cadillac Seville) the car would barely move at all. I replaced the burst line, and fluid, and my car wen on for another 30k miles before I sold it-with not one trans problem!

 

Problem solved! I didn't need to take the trans cooler lines off the radiator, they just didn't tighten them down at all. The one on top was barely hand tight (I easilly turned it over one full turn before it tightened) and the bottom one turned about a quarter turn. I filled it up using the above procedure and it took almost a gallon of ATF!!! Just got back from a test drive and I swear it never shifted this smooth. Thanks everyone!!!

Jeff

edit: by the way, I didn't use any teflon tape. A good mechanic friend of mine said you don't want to do that when you have flange fittings and it could even keep it from tightening all the way. I have some just in case it leaks again.

 

There's a procedure for checking/filling the tranny in the tech tips section above in the "other" tab. You should read thru it. The car must be level, the "trans oil temp" must be between 90 and 110 and you need to run thru all the gears with the brake applied to pump up the fluid. If you can find someone you trust, have them hold the brakes and run thru gears while you check the fluid level. Just keep adding until it pours back out the fill hole. I would check it once more now that you've had a chance to drive it and replenish the oil. I think those fittings are tough to cross thread and my guess was that they left them lose. You are correct, you never use thread sealant on flare fitting. They just seal on themselves when you double wrench them.

Glad you found the problem. The dealer would have wanted to replace the tranny and charge you some big bucks.


IQ