Filled up transmission, fluid poured outta drivers side radiator

[CowboyErik]

Just filled up transmission, about 8 quarts in, closed fill hole, started unit and atleast a quart came outta drivers side radiator, far away from the lines I just drained/flushed; can't see leak from above, must be another connection thats come loose or do intercoolers outright give out? I suspected this is what may have happened in the first place

[Triathlete]

You have a line in, line out and trans cooler...one of those is leaking.

[CowboyErik]

it poured big outta the radiator; drivers side, far away from the lines that we disconnect to drain the intercooler; has to be a line that run into the cooler on the left side of the radiator; I just can't see it; was looking over the weekend and couldn't see anything, how hard is it to swap radiators in our VXs? My coolent lines need to be replaced anyways; fluid was coming outta the radiator to fast I didn't have time to check the transmission, still don't know if it's working or not, i do know it's pumping though lol

[ZeroSix]

In and out are right beside each other. They are pretty exposed. They look innocent at first glance. As for mine I had to add a screw on clamp to the connections.

Look under the passenger side of your rad. they are about the size of your little finger

[CowboyErik]

my lines on the passenger side are good, I disconnect and drain those to get more old fluid out of intercooler when I service transmission, it was on the drivers side of the radiator that fluid came pouring out, is their a line in or out over there?

[CowboyErik]

from page 714 of the shop manual the transmission lines are both on the passenger side of the radiator next to the lower radiator hose, mystery then why fluid is blowing out of the LEFT side of the radiator; autozone has radiators in stock, looks simply to swap; may do it tonite

[Triathlete]

That means the trans cooler is leaking. It is part of the radiator. The radiator is pretty easy to replace. 2 coolant hoses, 2 trans lines and 4 mount bolts. Refil fluids. Make sure to plug the trans lines to keep from loosing to much fluid. I am sure others will have more tips to make it easier...

[CowboyErik]

Thanks TriAthelete! I'm heading out eithet autozone or O'reilly's for a radiator; it does look simple, I wannt get this thing up and running, test the transmission, find out if my clutch packs are gone of what; I can mail order in a new one for under $100, $140 at autozone or o'reilly's, not sure which to buy, both say lifetime warranty, not sure who I trust more!

[CowboyErik]

Autozone sells Spectra radiators, O'reillys sells Murray, online reviews, Spectra is terrible, and fail, going for the Murray instead

[Y33TREKker]

Do you know for sure that fluid is "blowing" out of your radiator, or are you just going by where the fluid that's leaking is ending up on your floor? Maybe the leak is on the passenger side of the vehicle, but it's running along something like your radiator support before it's finding a hole to fall out of and onto the floor.

If there was a hole in your radiator, it wouldn't stop leaking just because you shut off the engine.

[CowboyErik]

Got a new "Murrays" radiator, now sure where the leaks were coming from but my impression by the volume is that they were come straight outta the bottom of the driveres side of the radiator, and completely from that side, nothing from the passenger side, not a drop, after 9 hours sitting flat in place you would think 1 drop one come from another location, nothing; got new radiator hoses to since I was at it; I did notice there are some intercooler input/outputlines that run over to the left side/driver drivers side of radiator and screw in; no reason for one of those to suddenly just come totally loose, so thats why I'm thinking the core popped somewhere up higher; perhaps I will know when I get the old one out, fix is and reinstalll the old one, dunno, find out in morning; TRI-ATHLETE: going to clamp off the lines as they come forwards from the tranny; I had pumped nearly 2 gallons into the tranny and was ready to cycle the gears and see if I had a working transmission still after burning it; have to wait to Monday.....

[CowboyErik]

MY transmission adventure of the last several weeks took a strange turn today. to review, I struggled to get the main pan off but managed to without removing crossmember and just loosen tranny mount bolts, jack up the transfer case to gain access to rear most pan bolts, clean it all out, new filter and put both pans back up; they have not leaked in a week now, my problem was when I powered up the car, tranny fluid POURED outta the DRIVER's side of the radiator, could not tell from where and I assumed it was the radiator's intercooler core broke so I bought an inexpensive replacement radiators (130K on old radiator anyways).

so as I was removing the radiator today, it was snagged by some strange ties, since I didn't care about the old radiator at 130K which has an OEM date stamp of 1999 on it, I cut them off with a knife; I understood as soon as I got it out why my intercooler lines ran to the drivers side before coming back to the passenger side OEM in/out of the radiator, they were run around the driver's side of the radiator to link of with an AUXILLARY intercoolers clip mounted to the front of the AC condenser, sooooo, I think I am going to remove this; the leak I experienced when I first power-up the car after pumping two gallons of transmission fluid in, appears to be from the auxillary line, it had a spot where it had been work down, almost cut, from being run under the radiator and rubbed down on, the AUX intercooler appears to be leak free, I'll keep, it, looks new; but this can't be OEM, obviously I'm the 2nd owner of my VX, first guy must have done some towing; heavy towing! I am going to pull this AUX intercooler out, as I don't think I need it and will never tow. Thats ok isn't it? I don't need it right?!

[CowboyErik]

So any objections to me just pulling this old intercooler in favor of my new lines that run OEM direct to new radiator the way they are supposed to be anyways?? Any history of intercoolers in our OEM or aftermarket radiators being insuffient for our VX transmissions????

[CowboyErik]

You have a line in, line out and trans cooler...one of those is leaking.

yep, it is line in, line out, I didn't understand why a line ran over the the drivers side of the radiator, then came back, now I do, someone ran an intercooler line around the driver side of the radiator and back, mounted the intercooler to the front of the drivers side of the AC condensor; looks like a leak free auxillary intercooler but the lines that ran to it either cracked or it blew a leak from one the return line from intercooler that looks like it got rubbed down or cut from the way it was routed; I think I'm going to take this stuff out and run the lines the way the factory diagram shows; I thought about just using the AUX cooler while I test the transmission, I don't know whats going to come outta my tranny or if it's gonna even work as yet; thanks for your input TriAthelete!

[Y33TREKker]

...I am going to pull this AUX intercooler out, as I don't think I need it and will never tow. Thats ok isn't it? I don't need it right?!

This is the main factor in my opinion. Aux Trans coolers are added when excess towing is going to be a part of the vehicles' regular use, but if you don't think you'll be doing any, there's really no need for one...not there really ever should be anyway given the extensive testing under extreme conditions the Vehicross went through before going to production. And it might be different if you lived in the southwest where all driving would be occurring in higher relative temperatures, but since you're in OH, maybe not so much.