My poor neon

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:33 am

I got over my friends house and i smelt something weird from the vents... something like tranny fluid... i checked the tranny fluid... nothing on the stick, looked under the car and there was a puddle of cloudy pink fluid... shut her off check the tranny again and same fluid as on the ground... checked the coolant.... same damn stuff... warenty work.. here I come... till then.. i get to drive my dad's Pontiac G6

I hope this is covered under my power train warranty

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:24 am

tranny fluid and coolant don't have anywhere they can possibly mix...

Where's it leaking from?

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:24 am

tranny fluid and coolant don't have anywhere they can possibly mix...

Actually they do, we stock at least 2 2GN radiators at work because they are known to fail internally mixing coolant/trani fluid together and if not caught soon enough, trani destruction

silverneontuner · Post by **silverneontuner** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:14 am

right you are.

Post by **jonnymopar** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:17 am

External trans coolers FTW.

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:24 am

we must be talking about an auto trans here. I never noticed trans fluid lines to the radiator on my 5-SPD sxt.

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:48 am

yes it is an auto. and it seems to be leaking somewhere around the axel on the drivers side

AMilbut · Post by **AMilbut** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:14 pm

One of my hoses that went to my radiator for my trans fluid was loose after I had the front end at a shop (rain + back end of an acura). I noticed my tranny starting to slip, and of course the first thing I check is the fluid. Empty!!! Looked under the car and there was the good old pink stuf all along the radiator. Check your hoses and make sure they are all tight. Could be leaking from there.

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:28 pm

If its in the coolant it's pretty much the internal cooler. The engine/tranny will need to be flushed filled and the trans possibly reflushed to get all the antifreeze out. Antifreeze will destroy bearings, not too sure what it will do to clutches. Pray that warrantee covers it. The torque converter will be the bitch getting all the fliud out. You will definitely want to have it towed to the shop. I would get an external cooler plumbed to bypass the one in the radiator.

daaboots · Post by **daaboots** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:06 pm

Kelevra wrote: I hope this is covered under my power train warranty

This is a pretty common problem for the ATX. From what I've seen, its not covered under power train warranty because the failure occurs in the rad. You could have a serious repair bill coming your way. Good luck... hopefully you can get it fixed.

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:44 pm

but what about any damages to the trans that might have happened from this failure? will that be covered?

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:10 pm

Best thing is to ask the dealer/DCX. As long as you didn't drive it for 100 miles like that it should be ok with a flush and new fliud. As long as it was functioning fine when you stopped. I assume you didn't know there was an issue till you smelled the fluid. ATX's can take some decent abuse as far as wrong fliuds as long as their not run on them for an extended amount of time/mileage. I have used motor oil to get home and flushed/filled with proper fluid and not had an issue. Anti-freeze is an other matter, but as long as you get it changed you should be good to go. Getting all the oil out of the radiator/engine could be fun. Possibly some good degreaser like castrol superclean/water run through the cooling system would do it, but if the dealer has something to clean the stuff before flushing buy that if you do this yourself.

atom · Post by **atom** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:20 pm

I just went through this myself! Piece of shit radiators! I got a new radiator and use an external trans cooler now.

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:32 pm

Will an external trans cooler cool it as efficiently or better than the radiator?

Post by **occasional demons** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:43 am

Will work juast as good if not better. In the winter months maybe too good.

JJS66 · Post by **JJS66** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:57 pm

This has me a little concerned after hearing it is a common problem. The previous owner was not diligent with changing the radiator fluid as well. I think my next mod may be a different radiator with an external trans cooler as well.

JRM · Post by **JRM** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:06 pm

jonnymopar wrote:External trans coolers FTW.

Agreed

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:59 am

any recommendations on tranny coolers?

Kelevra · Post by **Kelevra** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:27 pm

But here's the update:

New radiator
Complete engine flush
Complete Trans flush
for a grand total of...... $800+

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:38 pm

Supergay

own3d5974 · Post by **own3d5974** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:14 pm

Kelevra wrote:But here's the update:

New radiator
Complete engine flush
Complete Trans flush
for a grand total of...... $800+

800 that you had to pay or what it would have cost you

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:54 pm

Kelevra wrote:But here's the update:

New radiator
Complete engine flush
Complete Trans flush
for a grand total of...... $800+

OUCH! So the radiator installation/flushes cost about $600? Did you get vasoline with that?

Exchanging bodily fluids FTL!

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:08 pm

word, I agree with O.D., you got raped. I'd have done that one in my driveway if they quoted me that.

Did you at least have the external trans cooler installed/plumbed?

Post by **jonnymopar** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:31 pm

Wenuden wrote:word, I agree with O.D., you got raped. I'd have done that one in my driveway if they quoted me that.

You can, but I can't think of any good way to flush your transmission without using the correct equipment to do so. Flushing the coolant out of the engine and replacing the radiator is a piece of cake though.

I'm in the wrong business if that job is worth $800. However, just to be fair, my grasp on what car work is worth isn't exactly current since none of my cars have seen a garage since 1999. The only exception is when I had my Neon's transmission replaced under warranty. Assholes killed my battery while they were at it too, so that only fortified my distrust of garages.

2GN.ORG

My poor neon

My poor neon

Re: My poor neon