05 STS trans cooler line leak

[Adam]

If you cut in the crimped section of the line (if possible) you can maximize rubber line length. You might need something stronger than tin snips.

[kevm14]

Yeah I know, I could surgically cut it and open it up and get some hose back. Obviously my first step will be to just slip the hose on and as long as it doesn't seem terribly stretched, probably call it fine.

[kevm14]

Actually I guess I should pull the hose up to where the new length will be and see how far into the line it actually goes....before I cut anything.

[Adam]

I've got a battery powered Dremel you can borrow if that'll help.

[kevm14]

I think I'd like to borrow that, even if just to carefully cut off the fitting from the line.

[kevm14]

Attacking this after lunch. Hope I am successful.

[kevm14]

Finished. About to road test. Took the entire afternoon to finish but things went fine. The hoses weren't long enough after cutting off the fittings but I stretched stuff and made it work. If I have any issues I'll have to get a short length of 3/8" (OD) pipe, and a short piece of 3/8" (ID) hose and that should take the pressure off stuff.

I used Adam's Dremel to surgically cut off the fitting that was stuck. Took me a while but I got it. Sheesh.

Selected the optimal size from my new fuel injection clamps. They seemed to work well. Why the hell couldn't this just be the factory attachment method? It doesn't look sketchy imo.

No more pics but steps to reassemble went like this:
- After cutting off the hoses and getting that rigged up, I had to finish tightening the trans cooler to the radiator.
- Install bolts and bolt condenser to radiator
- Install upper radiator mount brackets (4 bolts)
- Reattach random air deflectors
- Fill P/S and bleed manually (back and forth 20 full cycles; Ian did this for me).
- Attach air intake and upper radiator cover
- Jack up rear end
- Drain transmission
- Fill transmission until it dribbles out. I added some of the Lubegard shudder fix again. The trans fluid looked decent.
- Start engine - yes I braced for a geyser but saw nothing.
- Add some more trans fluid.
- Wait for it to warm to 85-122F or whatever (I took the temp from the trans pan) and then pump until it dribbles out.
- I ran out of fluid before it dribbled out. Oops. Bet it needs 1/2 quart or something. So I will have to get some and top it off but I'm sure it's safe to drive as it is.
- Check for leaks again. Nothing.
- Reinstall bottom air deflector
- Reinstall wheel that I removed, lower car back onto ramps.

So that's about it. Ready to test drive. I think it will be fine. Annoyed I didn't get another quart of fluid but oh well. The full synthetic AC Delco DEXRON VI that I bought has a bigger cap size so my pump doesn't thread on. To get around that I had to pour each quart into my then-empty quart of Castrol DEXRON VI.

I'll post back after the test drive but I think I'll be OK finally.

[kevm14]

Test drove. No issues, thankfully. I didn't reexamine my lines but I think I'm OK.

Trans shifts perfectly. I did a short road test, drove normally, hammered a little, everything is normal.

[kevm14]

I got my fluid so I'll "schedule" a top off.....someday.

[kevm14]

Drove the STS today. Saw some rainbow drops on the parking lot at home depot. Great.

Didn't take too long to realize it was power steering fluid. I will probably refer to my SRX power steering hose fix and just do that. I may have hurt the hose removing it when I did the trans cooler. Or it's a rusty line like the SRX so maybe I'll just duplicate that repair which should fix it. I didn't verify but I'm sure that is what it is. Not too hard but like...wtf.