Hi all,

Yesterday while i was under my truck changing my oil, i noticed that one of the transmission cooling lines was starting to leak, not minor seepage here but a noticible drip. One of the metal lines from the tranny to the radiator has a flexible hose thats about 5" long crimped in it (under the truck, behind the bumper almost directly behind the license plate bracket). It was leaking at the crimps. I got an extended warranty on the truck so i brought it to the dealer the next morning. The service writer looked at it and said that it would cost $95.00 to replace the line including labor (well under my 200 deductible) so i gave the ok to perform the repair and had them do a trans flush as well as it was overdue. Then i was told that some "cutting was required and the price went up to 146.00. again i was like do what you gotta do. Was at the dealer for about 2 hrs untill they told me it was all done. Long story short, i stupidly waited till later that night to check what they had done... they simply CUT the metal lines before the crimps (removing the crimps and rubber hose) and jammed on a piece of rubber hose over the bare ends of the cut and spiced it on with 4 mini hose clamps!! i was told they were gonna replace the entire line not just splice it, i could have done that at my shop FOR FREE!!!, it ended up costing $146.00 for that "repair". AND i noticed some seepage around the "repair" already!!!!! and of course i notice this at 11 at night. Before i call up and chew them out has anyone run across a similar situation with a dealer doing somthing like this and what ended up happening?? any imput would be appreciated.
thanks
Alex

 

I haven't run across this issue, but I would complain until they replace the entire line with a new one. You're just asking for issues down the road and it sounds like it's already leaking. If the service manager won't help, ask to speak to the zone rep. Also, see if they charged you for chemicals with the flush. A few folks here have had issues with those as well.

 

When the guy at Grease Monkey bent/crimped the line on my 2002 oil cooler, they allowed me to take it to Ford for the repair, and they paid for it. Ford did the same thing on mine. They swedged the line, put a piece of rubber tubing on it, and 4" mini-clamps. they said the pressure on it is so low, that it doesn't really matter, and said they'd warranty that particular repair for a year like any other repairs they make. I never had a problem with it, and still don't. The seepage you describe sounds like they didn't clean it off good. If it was seeping, even with the low pressure behind it, you would have drops forming at the least. Hope this post makes you feel a little better. I wanted a new steel line also.

 

the repair will work, but honestly, for ~$150, they should have replaced the line.

you are right though, that sort of fix is something I would have done myself

 

Thanks guys for the imput!

I called the service writer at my dealer this morning and expressed my concern. After being on hold for about 10 minutes he came back and told me that he talked to the tech and he said thats a "pretty standard repair" for that kind of issue. I know thats a standard repair for somthing 20 years old with 300,000 miles on it! anyway like tylus said i should have got a whole new line for 150 bucks. After going round and round on the phone with him for a while and being put on hold twice he said the only thing that they would do is if i paid for the new line they would install it for free. The funny thing is that the part costs guess what... $147.95!!!! wow what a coincidence! (the 146 bucks i paid yesterday covered the labor only) yea so i had them order the new line and then i got him to take another 15% off the cost of the part because i work in the same town, 2 blocks away from the dealer our chamber of commerce encourages the use of "local business discounts" which he had never heard of, but the funny thing is i buy parts there all the time and the parts man is always happy to honor that lol!
thanks a lot for the imput, wish me luck when i go back to get it done right!

 

Personally I wouldn't have paid the second time. There is no way that they did 2 and a half hours of work to put a new piece of rubber line on there. I'll admit, if done right, there's nothing wrong with splicing it like that. But if you pay that much, they need to do the whole thing, and do it right. Just my .02