Blew a Transmission Cooling line

**BIG GUNS** · 12-04-2008, 01:03 PM

So, the day after Thanksgiving Day, I was traveling in the great state of Minnesota visiting relatives.......lol.

At about 7 miles from my home town and 85mph, I notice a gray misty trail behind the car.

Since the roads had been previously salted a week or so ago and it was very dry out, I thought that the mist trail must have been salt dust and the fact that the F-body creates a lot of suction at high speed.

The trail was very long (about 100=150ft). Since all my gages looked normal, and no idiot lights on, I didn't really think too much of it.

Then, I got into town and all I could smell was burning transmission fluid. I looked under the motor and all I could see there was, a rain shower of transmission fluid coming from the motor area.

I opened up the hood and there to my wondering eyes should appear but, a transmission fluid drenched LS1 motor which made my heart tremble with fear......lol. Really, I freaked.

Since my uncle has a fixed shop/tire store in the same area that I freaked, my cousin told me to drive it in and put it up on the lift.

We troubleshot that leak for over an hour and couldn't find where it was leaking at. We serviced the tranny full and did another leak check and couldn't find it still.

Since I needed to get over to the next town to stay with my brother or have a place to stay at all, and the fact that they actually have more than a mom and pops anything, I decided to drive low speed and check to see a mist in the tail lights at night.....This was freaking me the hell out.

Got to my brother's house and it had not leaked at all. I was then deciding whether to chance it and bust out Sunday am driving real slow or to take it to a dealership to investigate it.

I decided early in the morning to try to find a transmission repair or anyone ASE certified to work on it.

I found 1 dealership open and it happened to be a Pontiac dealership.

When I brought it in, most of the workers on that day came out to look at it. Almost like they had only heard stories of a Trans Am.....lol.

By Saturday afternoon, the jury had determined a verdict:
--Transmission cooling line, aluminum to rubber seal unseated.
--No part arrival to Rochester MN til Tuesday afternoon.
--No field repair recommended.

This gave me hope since it was only three extra days to hang around and I was given permission to use my brother's house with my computer to work.

Tuesday, no part. The part got hung up in PA due to the weather and so, the earliest would be Wednesday (yesterday).

The part did come in yesterday and they got it on and all is well. No damage was done to the tranny.

I managed to drive consistently 80-90mph all the way back to STL and it performed wonderfully.

Minnesota was only about 13F everyday so, I was glad to get back to 34F here in STL.

Not sure what made the line unseat except for maybe too much transmission fluid pressure but, I don't know that much about the tranny to speak intelligently on that.

The total cost to repair was:

Line: $32.26
Freight: $9.16
5 qts Dextron III: $10.50
Labor: $138.60
Sales Tax: $3.63

________________

$194.15

My cost: $50.00 deductible

Warranty picked up the rest.

Anyone else got any information about what causes these lines to unseat or is this a rare occurance?

**dpinson** · 12-05-2008, 04:58 AM

dont know those are held in place by a e clip so maybe that broke somehow

**wooddaniel** · 12-05-2008, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by BIG GUNS

So, the day after Thanksgiving Day, I was traveling in the great state of Minnesota visiting relatives.......lol.

At about 7 miles from my home town and 85mph, I notice a gray misty trail behind the car.

Since the roads had been previously salted a week or so ago and it was very dry out, I thought that the mist trail must have been salt dust and the fact that the F-body creates a lot of suction at high speed.

The trail was very long (about 100=150ft). Since all my gages looked normal, and no idiot lights on, I didn't really think too much of it.

Then, I got into town and all I could smell was burning transmission fluid. I looked under the motor and all I could see there was, a rain shower of transmission fluid coming from the motor area.

I opened up the hood and there to my wondering eyes should appear but, a transmission fluid drenched LS1 motor which made my heart tremble with fear......lol. Really, I freaked.

Since my uncle has a fixed shop/tire store in the same area that I freaked, my cousin told me to drive it in and put it up on the lift.

We troubleshot that leak for over an hour and couldn't find where it was leaking at. We serviced the tranny full and did another leak check and couldn't find it still.

Since I needed to get over to the next town to stay with my brother or have a place to stay at all, and the fact that they actually have more than a mom and pops anything, I decided to drive low speed and check to see a mist in the tail lights at night.....This was freaking me the hell out.

Got to my brother's house and it had not leaked at all. I was then deciding whether to chance it and bust out Sunday am driving real slow or to take it to a dealership to investigate it.

I decided early in the morning to try to find a transmission repair or anyone ASE certified to work on it.

I found 1 dealership open and it happened to be a Pontiac dealership.

When I brought it in, most of the workers on that day came out to look at it. Almost like they had only heard stories of a Trans Am.....lol.

By Saturday afternoon, the jury had determined a verdict:
--Transmission cooling line, aluminum to rubber seal unseated.
--No part arrival to Rochester MN til Tuesday afternoon.
--No field repair recommended.

This gave me hope since it was only three extra days to hang around and I was given permission to use my brother's house with my computer to work.

Tuesday, no part. The part got hung up in PA due to the weather and so, the earliest would be Wednesday (yesterday).

The part did come in yesterday and they got it on and all is well. No damage was done to the tranny.

I managed to drive consistently 80-90mph all the way back to STL and it performed wonderfully.

Minnesota was only about 13F everyday so, I was glad to get back to 34F here in STL.

Not sure what made the line unseat except for maybe too much transmission fluid pressure but, I don't know that much about the tranny to speak intelligently on that.

The total cost to repair was:

Line: $32.26
Freight: $9.16
5 qts Dextron III: $10.50
Labor: $138.60
Sales Tax: $3.63

________________

$194.15

My cost: $50.00 deductible

Warranty picked up the rest.

Anyone else got any information about what causes these lines to unseat or is this a rare occurance?

The same thing happened to me on the way to Jacksonville. I had to limp it back to gainesville @ 45 MPH to my dad's shop. About 50 miles of me having an anxiety attack that my brand new transmission was fu$%ing up already. When I got it home there was fluid all over the passenger side wheel as well as the right side of the motor. Thank God it was the cooler line. Man that was scary. My dad said that the line had a flaw in it and it was not installed properly. It happened 500 miles after I rebuilt my transmission.

**BIG GUNS** · 12-05-2008, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by wooddaniel

The same thing happened to me on the way to Jacksonville. I had to limp it back to gainesville @ 45 MPH to my dad's shop. About 50 miles of me having an anxiety attack that my brand new transmission was fu$%ing up already. When I got it home there was fluid all over the passenger side wheel as well as the right side of the motor. Thank God it was the cooler line. Man that was scary. My dad said that the line had a flaw in it and it was not installed properly. It happened 500 miles after I rebuilt my transmission.

Well, that is good information to know. Thought I would put this out there to see if anyone else has had a similar issue.

Wonder what the hell causes that. Hopefully, these two incidents may be isolated unless anyone else has had this happen.

My friend with a manual transmission said he does not have these cooling lines. Is this true?

Yeah, I def freaked out when it happened. I'll know what the deal is if it ever happens again but, I don't really want it to happen again. Especially after the warranty runs out.

**BIG GUNS** · 12-05-2008, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by dpinson

dont know those are held in place by a e clip so maybe that broke somehow

Well, I thought that it had chaffed on the clip but, my suspicion was wrong on that one. Hard leak to find under normal circumstances.

I think that the high speed and high fluid pressure aggravated it somehow. Low speed didn't impact it somehow.

**jsteele90** · 12-05-2008, 07:37 PM

manual trans cars do not have tranny cooler lines

**dpinson** · 12-06-2008, 05:01 AM

Yeah automatics can be wierd
when i blew mine it threw fluid all over

**BIG GUNS** · 12-06-2008, 07:33 AM

Originally Posted by dpinson

Yeah automatics can be wierd
when i blew mine it threw fluid all over

Oh yeah, when I looked in the rear view mirror, I looked like a comet re-entering the earth's atmosphere I'm sure.

Mine was pretty well lubed........lol. Dealership took care of cleaning it up the best they could and looks pretty good now.

All my polished stainless steel parts in the motor area still need some work by me though.