Good afternoon, I have a 1996 Ford.

Tiny
LENSMAN
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 FORD EXPLORER
  • 110,000 MILES
Good afternoon,
I have a 1996 Ford Explorer 4.0 2wd with about 110,000 miles. It runs great and I've never had any problems with it, other than having the A/C redone. I had a complete transmission service done about 10,000 miles ago and it's never leaked and works perfectly. About a week ago, I left my house in the morning, and about 2 blocks later, I was pulling away from a stop sign and it had a slight slip. I went back home and checked under the car for leaks, and checked the fluid. It was low, so I added about 12 oz. And it worked fine after that. A couple of days later, the same thing happened. Again, it was low on fuid, but no visible leak anywhere. I decided to check my coolant, and found transmission fluid in my radiator.? There is no coolant in the transmission fluid, but there is transmission fluid in the radiator.? The radiator has had a small leak for quite some time, but never really got much worse. I've owned a lot of cars over the years, but never heard of this before. Could this have anything to do with a bad radiator?
Thank you
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Monday, December 3rd, 2012 AT 8:41 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,606 POSTS
Your transmission hasa cooling line inside the radiator and is leaking into the radiator. It is hot oil coming from teh torque converter and going back to trans. You need another radiator. Make sure your trans has no antifreeze in it as that is not good at all for a transmission.
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Monday, December 3rd, 2012 AT 11:12 PM
Tiny
HOMER1967
  • MECHANIC
  • 875 POSTS
Your trans cooler is internal to the radiator, this actually is a pretty common issue. Get a new radiator and do not drive it until it has the new radiator in it. If you get coolant in the tranny, it can wipe it out in a matter of minutes.
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Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 AT 1:18 AM
Tiny
LENSMAN
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Thanks guys. I just replaced the radiator yesterday. That was the original radiator so I guess it was probably time for a new one.
Thanks again.
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Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 AT 7:45 PM
Tiny
HOMER1967
  • MECHANIC
  • 875 POSTS
You are welcome. Thank you for choosing 2carpros.
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Thursday, December 6th, 2012 AT 2:21 AM

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