Transmission Fluid Leak!!

[kevstitan]

I discovered a transmission fluid lead Saturday when I had the skid plate off my Titan 4x4 LE CC w/big tow. I saw some oily residue on the skid plate. At first I thought mayby it was from the oil filter. But it was transmission fluid coming from one of the tranny cooler lines.

The line that's leaking runs from the top of the radiator on the passenger side. A small flexible hose elbow comes off the radiator and is clamped to a harder "pipe". This "pipe" runs down the length of the radiator and is clamped back into another flexible hose elbow before re-entering the radiator/cooler (I'm not sure which is which). The fluid was gathering at the bottom elbow and forming a drip like you would see on a faucet and dripping on to the skid plate. It looks like a very very slow leak. I took it to the dealer on Sat and they said the best they could do that day was tighten it up. They ended up putting on two additional hose clamps; one on the top elbow and one on the bottom elbow. They used the standard type hose clamps that you tighten with a scredriver. As opposed to the clamps that come from the factory that appear to be spring loaded.

The tech said to keep an eye on it and I checked it when I got home (about a 25 mile drive). There was a little trans fluid residue on my finger when I wiped the line in that area.

You all should eyeball those tranny cooler fluid lines just to make sure you don't have a leak. I can just see myself or someone else towing a trailer down the road with tranny fluid leaking out and burning down my tranny. Not good.

I'll keep everyone posted as this problem gets resolved.

[TitanicSE]

Thanks Kev. I had mine one day (got it this past Friday) when I was back to the dealer because the driveshaft had to be replaced because it was pissin' tranny fluid from the transfer case. That was this past Saturday. Today they dropped the shaft, pulled in another "doner" truck into the next bay and did a transplant. All, thankfully, is well and good. Evidently there was a small cap-like plug that was left off my driveshaft. Thanks for the tip!

[trowelsworth]

same thing happened to me several mos. ago. i removed factory clamps&replaced with hose clamps. went to dealer next morning,they topped off fluid , and said i done good. i discovered the leak doing an oil change,the foam near hose was soaked. my tranny light didn't come on , and the tech. said he only added a pint.

[RememberThisTitan]

yeah, i posted that problem a couple months ago. first thing to go wrong with my ride. tranny cooler line. easy fix, but im willing to bet i comes a recall over some time.