Had the car brought in for a mult-point inspection at the Jaguar dealer and they say I have green coolant in my transmission oil. I have no problems with the gears and I'm guessing it's at the early stages of contamination. About 3 weeks ago I had the reservoir coolant tank crack and the engine overheated. I'm guessing that may have cracked my radiator and the fluid mixed. Does anyone know how else this happened? I'm assuming it's the radiator and going to put an order in for a new one and do the job myself. Hopefully it works and I don't need a new trans. There is also the question of radiators. I've noticed one selling for $240 (Nissens) and then an OEM type for about $340 (Action Crash). Is the cheaper one made out of cheap plastic or something and going to melt on me during the summer months? Any advise would be appreciated.

 

I haven't looked into replacement radiators, but, you need to drain the transmission and probably not drive it until you replace the radiator. The coolant can do serious harm to the tranny. Did the dealer let you drive it away like that? I know from experience that to rebuild the tranny is very expensive.

 

Yeah. I decided to stop driving the car around. I'm putting my orders in now and decided to go with the more expensive all aluminum (OEM?) radiator. I've heard that it's not worth putting in a cheap radiator to save a few bucks when the trans fluid is so expensive and so much is riding on it. I've found the Mobil ATF LT 71141 oil but it's like US$22 a quart but see in the forums here that a lot of folks use the Mobil 1 Syn ATF which is like US$8 a quart.
My big question is how many quarts/litres does the transmission take when it's completely emptied? I'm going to have the radiator pulled so not sure if I should flush from the hoses or not and how much the hoses take too. Still looking at all my options before diving into it.

 

I had this problem with my old 93 XJ-S. What I did was pull the trans pipes from the radiator and plug them at the radiator. I purchased an external trans fluid cooling coil and mounted it in front under the radiator and relocated the pipes to it. Drained the radiator and refilled and was forced to recondition the trans. Good Luck!

 

I have a used OEM radiator on my parts car if you are interested.

 

I am not sure but I think the deterioration of the radiator lining between the coolant and the trans fluid is related to the mix of antifreeze/coolant that has been put in the radiator. I feel that mixing the potion is not a good thing. Do we have an expert in the bleachers?

 

I was hoping for the worst today when I opened the plug but there was no creamy mix in the transmission fluid. It did have the noramal dirty redish tint to it but no 'green coolant.' I must of drained around 3-4 liters only but even so it should have had a creamy mix to it if it was contaminated. Is the Jaguar dealer incompetent or trying to rip me off?? I had a friend take a look at it and didn't notice anything. I will take a sample to a local garage tomorrow to give me the final word on it.
If all is 'good' then I will run the engine, foot on brake, shift through the gears on the auto to pump out the rest of the fluid. Then repeat with a case of fluid for the flush and then put the mobil 1 atf in afterwards. Total job should be around $100, mostly for fluid.
I'll be so happy if I don't have to change out the radiator!!