Replaced the Tranny cooler lines yesterday

[johnnyapollo]

Replaced the Tranny cooler lines yesterday using a kit I purchased from Advanced Auto Parts. This is a job I don't recommend doing in the cold - the old lines were tough to get off - I ended up cutting them off by shaving them (carefully) off the metal barbs. The new lines were so stiff I had to use a blowdryer to heat them up a bit to get them to push on - had to do a lot of twisting. Otherwise it wasn't too bad - I did remove the fan shroud (so I could see the lines from above) and the front bumper-cover/grill assembly to remove the front skid plate and have access to them from below. If I ever have to do this again I'm going to add a separate tranny cooler and wait until it's warmer.

-- John

[tom4bren]

I'll keep that in mind for a long term project. The shop that fixed mine after the accident cut a little off the ends & put on new clamps to fix a leak.

[johnnyapollo]

My lines were FUBAR - both leaked. At some point early on I took the VX to a fairly reputable shop that used one of those tranny flush machines - basically it has two barbed tubes that plug into the lines going to the cooler and they pump fluid through a machine until it runs clear (pretty much, anyway). The lines started slowly leaking until they started to get really bad - from looking at the old lines I think the tubes from the machine were oversized and they basically stretched out the inner diameter - no matter how I clamped them they would seal for a while then eventually start leaking again - this was driving me nuts, plus having to hear about the spots under the VX from my wife didn't bode well...

-- John