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Hello all, I’m pretty new here and since there appears to be an abundance of informed people here I though I’d ask a question.....
I’m completely rebuilding a 2004 Subaru Legacy 35 Anniversary Wagon I recently picked up. I wanted a Subaru project of my own after doing a few overhauls on Customer vehicles. We own a Baja too but that car has been maintained and rarely needs much.
While tearing down the top end of the engine in this Legacy I found that the Automatic Transmission Cooler lines were disconnected from the radiator. Clearly the radiator was replaced. I’ve been doing this stuff all my life and I recognize a new aftermarket radiator when I see one. The typical crappy caps are still installed on the cooler in & out tubes at the bottom of the radiator.
My first suspicion was some shade tree mechanic rigged it for whatever reason but forgot to go back & connect the lines.
The part that’s tripping me up is the lines are connected to each other with tranny shop fittings. These are not your typical auto parts store or hardware store plumbing parts but more like the random fittings that come with auxiliary tranny coolers or that might come from Transmission distributors like TransStar.
I sort of think a tranny guy bypassed the radiator but I can’t understand why? I started wondering if these radiators might be prone to some sort of a failure or cross contamination so someone in “the know” bypassed it. Or maybe there is really no good reason to bypass the cooler. I’ve never encountered anything quite like this. My instincts tell me to connect the lines to the radiator.
The guy said he was driving this thing as a daily ride til the inspection ran out (though I don’t know how since virtually every aspect of this car was pretty clapped out).
What I will say is the ATF is relatively clean, the tranny shifts normal (when compared to our cream puff Baja). I’ve literally only driven the car about 5 miles. I towed it home, did a few things to it, and on the test drive I quickly decided I wasn’t driving it up I got through the engine overhaul and a drivetrain overhaul (I-joints and front cv’s were total trash). The fluid is not fresh but it’s not burned either. I’ve just finished up the engine. All the mechanical stuff is just about done except the front CV’s. As soon as the CV’ s are done and I figure out which way to go with the lines it’s ready for another test drive, followed by differential oil change and a tranny service.
Anyone have any thoughts or should I just go ahead and reconnect the lines. I humbly await any input.
Thanks in advance
I’m completely rebuilding a 2004 Subaru Legacy 35 Anniversary Wagon I recently picked up. I wanted a Subaru project of my own after doing a few overhauls on Customer vehicles. We own a Baja too but that car has been maintained and rarely needs much.
While tearing down the top end of the engine in this Legacy I found that the Automatic Transmission Cooler lines were disconnected from the radiator. Clearly the radiator was replaced. I’ve been doing this stuff all my life and I recognize a new aftermarket radiator when I see one. The typical crappy caps are still installed on the cooler in & out tubes at the bottom of the radiator.
My first suspicion was some shade tree mechanic rigged it for whatever reason but forgot to go back & connect the lines.
The part that’s tripping me up is the lines are connected to each other with tranny shop fittings. These are not your typical auto parts store or hardware store plumbing parts but more like the random fittings that come with auxiliary tranny coolers or that might come from Transmission distributors like TransStar.
I sort of think a tranny guy bypassed the radiator but I can’t understand why? I started wondering if these radiators might be prone to some sort of a failure or cross contamination so someone in “the know” bypassed it. Or maybe there is really no good reason to bypass the cooler. I’ve never encountered anything quite like this. My instincts tell me to connect the lines to the radiator.
The guy said he was driving this thing as a daily ride til the inspection ran out (though I don’t know how since virtually every aspect of this car was pretty clapped out).
What I will say is the ATF is relatively clean, the tranny shifts normal (when compared to our cream puff Baja). I’ve literally only driven the car about 5 miles. I towed it home, did a few things to it, and on the test drive I quickly decided I wasn’t driving it up I got through the engine overhaul and a drivetrain overhaul (I-joints and front cv’s were total trash). The fluid is not fresh but it’s not burned either. I’ve just finished up the engine. All the mechanical stuff is just about done except the front CV’s. As soon as the CV’ s are done and I figure out which way to go with the lines it’s ready for another test drive, followed by differential oil change and a tranny service.
Anyone have any thoughts or should I just go ahead and reconnect the lines. I humbly await any input.
Thanks in advance