Thread: Cooler line pops out at radiator. Dealership says I need a new radiator?!?! Pic

Short version:
The metal transmission line that goes to the radiator keeps popping loose and draining the transmission fluid. Dealership already had the vehicle in once. They pushed the tube back in, filled the fluids, (both of which I already had done the 1st time this happened) and charged me $340. Now they want to replace the line, fluids, and the whole radiator!!! For a metal line that pops out of a socket part that threads into the radiator. Seems like a line/socket problem, not a line/radiator problem. Read on for more, a picture, and my plea for help.

After owning my 2006 Grand Prix GT for about 3 years, the metal transmission cooler line (metal one with a "barbed" end) that goes into the transmission popped out of the socket. I pushed it back in and it felt like it was firmly in place, topped off the lost fluids and then about 65 miles later (64 of those were highway driving home, and it was the last 1 mile when it was driven in-town the next day) it popped out again. Thinking that something must be beyond my understanding, I took it to the dealership.

$340 later, they filled it with 11 quarts of transmission fluid, and popped the metal tube back in. They claimed that they replaced a "clip" at the radiator, but I have my doubts that they did anything since there was really no mention of it on the bill. I was frustrated with the cost, but happy to be back on the road with the insurance of knowing that a mechanic who does this kind of thing for a living fixed it.

Well, fast forward 5 days since getting it back, and it did it again. Each time this leaves the vehicle stranded. This was last night.

So I voice my frustration to the dealership this morning and tell them that this time it is their responsibility to tow it in.

Now jump to this evening. I get a call from them. The service guys (not the techs, but the ones that just coordinate the service jobs) don't seem to really understand much, but here is what they said.

They wouldn't charge for the tow (gee, really?) and would credit us $190 towards the repair (at $13 a quart for fluid, that will go quick), but they also want to replace the metal line at $36, AND replace the whole radiator!!!! The service guy was saying that the clip keeps coming loose, so blah blah this, blah blah that. None of it makes any logical sense.

Here is a picture of what happens....
gp-trans2.jpg

The metal tube (yellow marking the barbed end) comes out of the socket piece (marked in red). The socket piece is what I was lead to believe that they replaced last time. It is like $6 at RockAuto. There was no line-item for it on the bill, so I don't know for sure.

The socket piece threads into the radiator and is the interface between the internal cooling part of the radiator and the transmission fluid line. If the metal piece doesn't stay in the socket, how is that a new radiator?

Oh, after their generous $190 credit, it would "only" cost us another $460 for a new metal line, the fluids, and the radiator.

I thought that the transmission line was low pressure? The service guy was saying that the radiator might be damaged where the socket is causing a loss in pressure and when there is a loss in pressure, maybe the metal tube isn't staying in place. Huh? Then he started talking like he thought that the socket is what came loose from the radiator. Huh? I explained this all to them. My biggest mistake was when I got stuck last night I pushed the metal tube back into the socket to see if it would stay put or felt any different than the previous time before the dealership "fixed" it.

I also talked to my father-in-law who is a mechanical engineer dealing with large earth-moving equipment. He taught me a lot about automotive repair as well, and it makes no sense to him as to why a whole radiator would need to be replaced when this tube keeps popping out of a socket.

Is there anything else I can do?

The dealership said that they can replace the line and fill it again, but if something else happens, they are washing their hands clean of the problem.

Just put an external trans cooler on it

this is why i do my own work

I hear ya. I do a lot of my own work, but we were in a pinch. My wife's minivan (see how I call it "her's") threw a rod. Nice. Needed an engine. That happened 1 week prior to this happening with my car the first time. We were already down one vehicle, and then a second one. Being a 2-vehicle household, that put me in a bind. Now we have the van back, and I'm borrowing my folk's truck while they are in Texas for the winter, so we aren't hurting so much. I didn't even want to take it back to them last night, but I figured that I already paid $340 and they didn't fix the problem, maybe they would this time.

I agree that the fitting (I was calling it a socket, but fitting is more correct) should have been replaced, then, maybe, the line connecting to the fitting.

Is there ANY reason that the radiator should even have to be touched? (outside of a new fitting?) It wasn't leaking at all and the fitting feels snug in there.

where did you take this car so i can make sure not to go there since im from the area lol

i have a couple brand new fittings laying around

Originally Posted by Nickell

where did you take this car so i can make sure not to go there since im from the area lol

Pat McGrath. I've never been impressed with them, but they are "the" only dealership in town. Ok, there are others, but they are almost all "McGrath something"

So I stopped in to the dealership this morning. The service guy was of very little help. It was probably best that he just kept his mouth shut and guide me to my car and to the technician since his speculations the night before really didn't help.

Long story short. The tech tells me that the "clip" that they replaced last time, was just the small spring clip on the fitting. Ok. Not impressed. I explain to him that the fitting connects to the radiator and that is solid. The other side of the fitting connects to the metal transmission fluid line, and that is NOT holding. The problem is with the line and the fitting. He agrees. He even said that he blew air through the transmission cooling core inside the radiator and didn't notice any flow restrictions. So the technician and I agree that the radiator and/or radiator-to-fitting connection is OK.

Here is where it gets stupid. They wanted to replace the radiator because their parts catalog doesn't list the fitting as a servicable part. WTH? I told him that RockAuto has them for about $10 and the line for another $10, throw some shipping on there and be done for $30. He agreed that he would think that those two parts would fix it, but that I would have to provide the fitting. That is when the service manager comes over. I talk to him and explain how stupid it is that they can't get the fitting and that an entire radiator would need to be replaced if they did it. I said, "That is why they make that fitting. So that you do NOT have to replace the radiator."

I go into more details with them about some of the things that all of you mentioned here as well. So the service manager tells the technician to start calling some of their sister dealerships (this is a Chrysler dealership that used to do GM at this location, but their GM location in town has a much smaller shop so they recommended me taking it to this one) in town to locate the part. Here is where we figure out what went wrong (outside of them just not thinking through the situation), the parts catalog diagram of the radiator does not have an arrow pointing to the upper fitting that I need, but does to the lower fitting (which they thought were the same), so "if there is no arrow, then it isn't servicable because a part isn't available" is their mindset. They are getting the part shown for the lower fitting and expect it to be the same. I wonder if it is...

Those two pieces IIRC are the same size. So the lower should work. As for that clip, new GM clips are blue. I know, I have bought a few. Always blue. The clip in your picture looks like the original. The only issue there is either something causing it to not seat fully, the line or the fitting/clip like you are saying.

You could fix this fairly cheap yourself.

That picture was from when the line disconnected the very first time when my wife got stuck on the highway. I did notice that the replacement clips that the guy had in his hand today to show me were all blue, but I didn't notice the color of the clip that is currently on the vehicle.

I know (now) that this is a super easy job, but I am hoping to get it done for virtually free at this point from them since they admit to it being a hassle, not being solved correctly the first time, being really expensive for what was done, and most importantly, for pretty much ignoring me when I said that I thought that the fitting and line weren't connecting and one/both of them needs replaced (they did neither).

The vehicle is also at their shop right now, so I would need to put fluids in, get it home, get the replacement line and fitting ordered and here, lose the fluids when I disconnect the line, replace the line, fitting, and fluids...

I would be losing a lot of time at this point and a lot of cost in fluids. Even if I used the cheapest transmission fluid at $4.97 at Walmart, it is about $60 with tax in fluids that I would just be throwing away to get it home.

We'll see what they come back with befor making that call...

On the fluid. If you didn't leak on the way home. You'd lose less than a quart changing the line. When the trans isnt' running, it's not pumping the fluid out. Best of luck..

Wow. Didn't know that. Well, I knew that the fluids weren't pumping obviously, but I hadn't looked to see where the line connects up to the transmission exactly, but figured that since it was near the bottom, a lot of the fluid would just run out when the line was disconnected at the tranny.

Thanks for that extra info.

So they couldn't find the exact part anywhere. They started to think that the radiator had been replaced with an aftermarket one, but I doubt it. I've owned the car for a few years, and there is no evidence or record of a previous accident, etc. Anyway, they said that they "pieced together" a solution with a new line and some sort of extra piece on the fitting to help to hold it in place.

I never like the words "pieced together". There was no charge for this, but I am not completely confident in the fix, and I need to drive the car about 400 miles between today and tomorrow.

Good luck, once you have it back, you can make repairs if you decide to.

Quick question, what is the normal operating temp for the transmission fluid? It is about 34F outside today and I was doing some in-town driving. According to the DIC, the transmission fluid temp was hitting 186F. Maybe I have a bad memory, but I don't remember it being much more than 140F when I've looked in the past. Again, I could be totally wrong, but I do want to make sure that the temp is in check.

2006 Grand Prix GT (supercharged obviously)

I will try to take a picture tonight of what they did with the line/fitting and post it here. Looks like they put something else on the fitting to get things to stay together.

Here are a couple of (poor) pictures of the new cooling tube and the little black "thing" that is clipped in place that should hold the tube in...