Transmission cooling lines

[GOakes]

In '97' shortly after I purchased my truck there was a lot of talk about failures in the automatic transmission cooling system on some Dodge Cummins trucks. As I understand it, Dodge took some action in dealing with this problem -- maybe a recall? I asked about my truck and was told not to worry the defect was fixed before the '97's' cam out. The alleged problem (as I remember it) involved the quick disconnects in the transmission fluid cooling lines. According to the story being told: All or part of this coupling was made of a plastic that could/would fail at high temperatures it encountered, resulting in loss of fluid and failure of the transmission. My truck was manufactured late in the 1997 production year has two couplings in these lines that tie the steel tubing (mounted on the engine) to the hoses that connect to the air cooler located in front of the radiator. These couplings are made up of two metal (slip fit) pieces, which are made liquid, tight by an “o” ring and latched together with a plastic snap device. I have taken these couplings apart and examined them for evidence of damage or defect. I found nothing of immidate concern and there has never been any sigh of a leak at this point. This truck did however experience a connection failure in these lines when one of the fittings connecting the hose to the water to fluid cooler cracked and dumped several quarts of ATF before I caught it. I've not read anything about anyone else a similar problem and considered it an isolated failure, but am starting to wonder .

My son has a ‘94’ model (which he purchased new) and has never been contacted by Dodge concerning this alleged connector failure. In fact he contacted the dealer and was told that no such problem existed and that there was no service bulletin or recall involving the cooling lines or couplings in those lines.

Again I wonder --- Sure was a lot of smoke --- and Dodge says "there was no flame" ???



I’m looking for information from anyone with knowledge of a Dodge service bulletin or recall involving failures in this system and/or comments from anyone with first hand knowledge of failures of the sort/s noted above.

Thanks

George Oakes

 

[Joe G.]

George,



The recall for this was only for the gassers. There was a fire danger for them so the recall was for safty purposes. No fire danger for diesels so once it's out of warranty we have to eat it. Most of us have replaced the plastic fittings with compression fittings. There are two types of the plastic fitting, both types fail. The early ones had a small wire clip. The later ones were made different. So if you have plastic in your fittings it's a failure waiting to happen. My compression fittings have been working fine for over 100K miles. Some people have had these fitting break because of vibration, but mine are ok so far. If anything starts to leak I'll replace the lines with hydraulic pressure hose.

 

[Missouri Mule]

GOakes,

The problem with the plastic connections were at the transmission side on the lines.

No recall, TSB maybe? Have to check on that. Plenty of letters to TDR complaining/ repairs.

94 thru 96 are supposed to be the only years the plastic fittings were used.

 

[Extreme1]

I had mine "wear out" a couple times. The ends that are most likely to fail are the pressure line at the trans, the pressure line at the engine mounted cooler and the the return line at the trans.



Your son's '94 was made with the early "wire retainer" connectors. If you update the lines (I did) you will end up replacing ALL of the lines due to a change at the front connections. You could make up your own front rubber lines with some trans hose and copper elbows. Those 2 rubber hoses were way too expensive for what you get.