Water in Transmission! Yikes!

[DrLou]

Gents,

Please check my thinking here: I've recently gotten back a Blackstone Labs report on my transmission oil. While it was obvious on inspection that it had water in it, the report verified this. Coolant in Transmission Oil! Not good.

Am I correct in assuming this can only be coming from a leaky transmission cooler section of the radiator? And that I'm in for a radiator replacement?

Does anyone have any strong recommendations/personal mileage reports on maker of the replacement?

[Charlie Foxtrot]

The sponsor of this site (Pelican Parts) offers Nissens & Benz OE for a fair price. You might be able to shop around and save a few bucks, but Peach/Pelican sells quality & stands behind their parts. That is the most important part of the repair. The good news is that it looks like you have some choices, NOS, OEM or aftermarket.There is nothing intrinsically wrong with new old stock (NOS - Benz), or original equipment manufacturers (OEM - the folks that make parts for benz). As for aftermarket, things can get tricky. Some are good & some are not. This means you have to decide - do I have a pristine classic that I want to keep all original, do I have a beater with a heater or do I fall somewhere in between? In other words, how long are you going to keep it & how much do you want to spend? For my budget minded customers in the past I have used (in my shop) Murray, Four Seasons, Ready Rad, and a few others that have morphed (merged) into Spectra Premium. In the past few years I have used Spectra's radiators with good results in 40+ domestic and import cars (all customers cars plus my own & my OL's trucks), but I have not used them in a benz yet. Most of my customers are budget minded, in a hurry and want it quickly. Quick turn around is nice, but I just don't want to do the job twice. I have had no comebacks w/Spectra. BTW I have used Nissens and had no comebacks (2 benz's).

Your next worry is the trans & engine. Did you check the engine oil? Glycol based coolant attacks some metals found in bearings. At a minimum swap out the trans fluid a couple of times (don't forget the torque converter) - Dex 3 is cheap, trans rebuilds are not. Ditto for the engine - change the oil & filter now (just in case), and maybe repeat after a few hours of light duty operation. Keep a close watch on your fluids. Frothy trans fluid or engine oil indicates water based contamination (looks like a strawberry shake for tranny, jamoca shake for engine oil). Good luck.

[Diesel911]

I believe that Coolant in an automatic trans messes with the friction material on the Bands. I would do a google search on what happens to auto trans when the coolant gets into them.

[Stretch]

Water in a transmission is very very bad news.

I took a 722.303 to bits and found that water / coolant had mixed to form a really nasty sticky emulsion that got everywhere. The emulsion is very hard to remove - does not seem to drain with the transmission fluid (!) - stays inside and rusts parts.

See for example





http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/323259-722-303-bits-photo-shoot.html

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Not good news at all for the transmission. Whilst the radiator is an easy fix - coolant hoses running to the transmission too - removal of a coolant and AFT emulsion is almost impossible (as far as I can tell) with out a total strip down.

You might find some product that says it will remove this - and perhaps this might be the one and only time (that I can think of) when a so called "flush" might help a tiny little bit for the larger parts of the transmission...

{disclaimer (!): On the whole the concept of a "flush" is in my opinion a load of old codswallop - I mean just look at the tiny passage ways: Particularly in a valve body where there is often a "no flow" hydraulic condition - no effing way any arse bucket "flush" is going to shift anything out of that!}

[BillGrissom]

Originally Posted by Diesel911

I believe that Coolant in an automatic trans messes with the friction material on the Bands. ...

Ditto, I have read that water causes the friction material on the clutch plates to fall apart. That material seems to be something like paper (cellulose?). Perhaps anti-freeze (glycols) is bad too. But, I have no personal experience. I have read that if you see water in the transmission fluid (foamy white?), you must address it quick. Indeed, in my 60's cars, I installed an external tranny oil cooler, bypassing the radiator cooler, to eliminate that concern.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Stretch - your disclaimer is PRICELESS!!! I can't stop laughing!!

Thanks!

[dieselbenz1]

Last year a friend had a 240 kompressor which the rad is known to mixup water and tranny fluid. He noticed and topped up his antifreeze for around a year then one day his transmission started slipping. He replace the radiator and we flushed 20 liters of fresh fluid through it. Worked great for 3 days upon removal of the pan chunks of friction material was found. I believe the friction material swells with water/ antifreeze.

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by Charlie Foxtrot

Stretch - your disclaimer is PRICELESS!!! I can't stop laughing!!

Thanks!

You're welcome good Sir.