Blown seal?
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Blown seal?
I was towing my boat home with a '96 F150/4.9 six. About a half mile from home I noticed the lights seemed dim and when I slowed to make the turn onto my street the ABS light, brake light, and off light on overdrive(blinking) came on. Managed to get it into driveway and popped the hood. There appears to be tranny fluid all over the front of the engine and s-belt. Would this be a blown seal? Is it terminal? Expensive? I'm not much of a wrench, I just love my truck and want to do the right thing.
Postmaster
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: So Cal
I would guess it is more likely to be either a loose cooling line or leaky tranny cooler. Might also be fluid blowing out the dipstick tube. The tranny seal would show fluid around the bell housing, not the front of the engine.
Check your tranny cooler lines into theradiator and also check any auxiliary cooler for leaks. And of course take a look at the tube.
My worst case is that the aux cooler has a leak. Easy to replace but may cost upto $100(depends) if you do it yourself. If it is the hard cooler line, that is harder to replace but costs less, I think. If it is a stripped thread on the radiator lines, then I am not sure if you can repair that. Fluid blowing out of the tube is due to pressure build up, over filling, over heating, air in the fluid etc.
Good Luck.
Jim Henderson
Check your tranny cooler lines into theradiator and also check any auxiliary cooler for leaks. And of course take a look at the tube.
My worst case is that the aux cooler has a leak. Easy to replace but may cost upto $100(depends) if you do it yourself. If it is the hard cooler line, that is harder to replace but costs less, I think. If it is a stripped thread on the radiator lines, then I am not sure if you can repair that. Fluid blowing out of the tube is due to pressure build up, over filling, over heating, air in the fluid etc.
Good Luck.
Jim Henderson
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The truck was hit hit head on by a Honda sliding sideways in the snow 4 years ago. Made a mess of the Honda(would've probably killed a passenger as door was into center console) but I backed the truck out and drove it to the shop where they put it right. Kinda even forgot about it until I looked Saturday morning. One of the steel cooling lines got bowed just enough to sit against the serpentine belt and after 4 years it finally eroded through. Cut out 1/2 inch of line and slid on a 5/8 ID rubber tran. line overlapping about 2" each way and clamped it on. Seems to be holding just fine but I'll take it to my mechanic and get his opinion as to whether it'll hold or I should replace the line. Thanks for the help and the great site!
