Seattle Cl-S

My garage floor has had a nightly dark spot appear for the last month or so. At first, I though it was just the tranny fluid leaking 'cuz I had overfilled it the last time I changed it. Well, upon checking the oil the other day, the oil dipstick came out bone dry!!!

I had the oil changed (what was left of it) with more pure synthetic and took the car into Acura Southcenter today to check for the oil leak. They called me back and said that I had a transmission fluid leak from the lower part of my radiator and that was what was showing up on my garage floor. They said I needed a new radiator (@$800 parts/labor). They also couldn't find an oil leak. Not really sure if I trusted their diagnosis, I asked them to clean the whole bottom end of the car and keep it for the weekend to see if it was truly the source of leakage. We shall see.

BTW, does it really cost $800 to replace the damn radiator? Anyone know of any common problems that would lead to such severe oil loss? I know cars can burn oil but this is crazy!

Allout

What they are telling you sounds like BS to me. Your car does not have a tranny cooler incorporated into the radiator as far as I know. To find the source of the leak, they typically will put dye into the system and then use a black light to find the source of the leak. Another potential leak point may be the hoses leading to your tranny cooler. If you pull off the lower engine cover, you should be able to get a good look at the source of your leak. Are the drips on your garage floor pink like tranny fluid? Throw a white paper towel under your car next time you park it to determine if it's tranny or motor oil.

A factory Denso radiator is $254 on acuraautomotiveparts.org. Guys were talking about a Koyo radiator on e-bay in this thread as an alternative.
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...light=Radiator

To get the radiator out, you may need to lift out the blower so you can get to the fans. In any case, $800 sounds awfully expensive. I really don't think it's your radiator though.

Seattle Cl-S

I questioned the whole 'tranny fluid runs through the radiator' bit as well. I even said 'don't mean to doubt you, but are you sure' to the tech and he said he was positive.

The fluid is definitely not pink. I did the white towel test and it is very dark brown. The tranny fluid on my dipstick is still bright red from the fluid change last month.

I may just buy a radiator myself and do a major 'getting my hands dirty' overhaul on this beast.

Allout

From what your saying, I don't think you have any issues with your radiator. Another source of this fluid could be Power Steering. That system has a cooler that runs in front of the radiator. If you trace those lines, you may find that as your culprit also. Has your power steering fluid dropped at all?

BTW - I just checked the Helm manual and there is definitely NO tranny fluid going through the radiator. I think that only applied to the 1999-2000 TL that had the 4 speed auto. The 5 speed auto incorporated a ATF cooler that sits on top of the tranny - not in the radiator.