HBoss

To those of you who have tranny coolers, does either hose show any signs of being wet? As if the tranny fluid is soaking into the hose a little bit?

I obviously have 2 hoses coming out of the cooler, one hose is completely dry, the other one is soaked for about an inch above the cooler w/some residue on the top of the cooler on that side. I'm sure it's tranny fluid soaking the line, perhaps I clamped it on too tight last year?

Here's an old pic so you won't see the soaking, but basically the hose on the right is soaked from the bottom of it for about an inch above where it's connected to the cooler and it's got some fluid on the top of the cooler on that side. Not a pool of it, just enough to look wet and have dust and stuff stick to it.



I'm not overly concerned about it as it's been installed for almost a year now w/no problems, but I'm wondering if it might become an issue. Any ideas?

Al

P.S. No it's not all held in by one tie-strap. It's bolted in at the bottom.

HBoss

Hrmmm...well it's a good thing I checked the tranny fluid today. It seems to be a little low. Perhaps it is leaking out the top there and evaporating and leaking a little more and evaporating, etc..

ufjaz

HBoss,

Did you use tranny line?

When I installed mine, the Hayden kit only had enough hose for one line. The instructions said to use tranny hose only - not fuel line, not any other kind of hose. That kinda surprised me, but maybe that's why fuel line is not recommended.

ufjaz

Hey ... while we're on the subject:

When I installed my cooler, I disconnected the stock lines expecting to leak a bunch of fluid. But barely an ounce came out!? I was stumped.

Oh well, I installed the cooler, ran the tranny through all the gears, and checked the level. It was still good. I'm not sure what to make of this. I've been checking the level for the past three weeks and it is fine.

Stranger than fiction! Any thoughts?

HBoss

Interesting point. I never knew there was a difference, but that's probably what it is. I installed the tranny cooler last May, so in the past 10 months or so I'd say I lost about 700 - 750 mL. Not horrible for 10 months, but I shouldn't have lost any. I'll just have to keep checking it every month & top off as necessary.

I might look for some tranny line hose (didn't even know there was such a thing) and redo that hose this summer.

Your situation is quite strange indeed. I lost about a quart when I disconnected my line. How much did you have to add to top it off after the tranny cooler install?

Al

alanh

I would doubt that fluid is actually going through the hose material itself.

I installed the Toyota cooler and installed it upside down so the hose connections are on the top like yours. I ran the hoses through the hole in the body where the air conditioner tubes run on my 3rd gen. (Running them out the bottom seemed too exposed for me and I used some plastic tubing as protection where the hoses go through the hole in the metal.) Anyway, I had some leakage around one of the fittings. It was never a lot, but enough so you could see it had been leaking and collect oily looking dust along the top of the cooler and some down the side. I don't think I saw any on the hose though.
My metal end fittings for the hoses have right-angle bends in them that look a little different than yours.

Anyway, I ended up loosening the fitting to the cooler, and then re-installing it good and tight and that stopped it. I don't know if it just wasn't tight enough, or if it wasn't lined up quite right originally, but that did it for me. If I remember right, I had a wrench on the nut and another on the larger hex fitting on the cooler to make sure I wasn't putting a lot of torque on the joint of the fitting to the body of the cooler.

HBoss

Thx for the input guys. Even if I don't change the hose later, at the slow rate it's disappearing, I'm not overly-concerned about replenishing the lost fluid.

HBoss

By the way, upon further inspection it looks like I did use fuel line for the one that looks like it's soaked in fluid. So I think you are right. The tranny hoses & fuel hoses are different. The tranny hose is more like rubber whereas the fuel line looks like it's braided on the outside.

It's only going missing at a very slow pace, which is good, but I might replace that fuel line hose in the summer and see what happens. For now I just keep checking it every month and add as necessary.

Al

tomstin

I also had to install the Hayden 30K cooler upside down to get it to fit behind the hood latch. The directions were pretty clear about using ATF hose. The 11/32 that came with the Hayden were really tough to get on the lines and I needed another 3 feet of so. I ran out and got 3/8 ATF hose. The only place I found it was a Auto Parts supplier. Can be tough to find, but clearly heavy duty hose. BTW, the 3/8 was much easier to slide onto the fittings!!! I have 10k miles on the installation and no leaks, dry as a bone!

HBoss

My instructions never said anything about having to use tranny hose, damn generic tranny cooler.

You guys have convinced me though, I'm sure that's the problem. As soon as I find a garage in this town that rents space & tools, or summer rolls around, I'm going to change that hose. I'm pretty sure it's the easier one anyway (the one to the radiator).

Al

HBoss

Tried to take care of it tonight, but apparently I didn't buy enough tranny hose for the job. I'll do it tomorrow night. This is what the hose on the right currently looks like:

jacksonpt

I haven't had any problems... though I'm running with the TRD unit - they provided both hoses (for $170 they better!!!).

HBoss

All feex'd now!



Note to self: never use fuel line for a transmission cooler. The other end of the hose looked much worse than the top. All drenched and such, I'm sure that's where I lost most of the tranny fluid over the months..