Transmisson issues???? help

[DeXTeR]

I have what was a moderate leak of tranny fluid comming from the air damn area on my 97 Grand am SE. It now escallated ( as soon as I got to work this morning) to a torential downpour of tranny fluid from the same area, except focused more on the passenger side. I dont even know if Ill be making it home from Pittsburgh today. What I would like to know is, is there a transmission cooler in front of the radiator... Are there lines that commonly break running in that general area... And last, what the hell is the problem with these cars??? In like one month the car has cost more than its worth in repairs about 9 times over, and I dont go to garages, so this is just parts.

Car-

1997 Grand Am SE
3.1 litre (3100 SFI)
what ever tranny they used in these things, maybe a 4T60-E, its an auto

About 125,000 Miles....

Supposedly there is a new radiator in this thing, and if there is a cooler built into it maybe its just a case of a loose line. I am expierencing what I think is every problem I have read that these can have though... I may as well list some of the other annoying ones in hope someone can answer them.

The air conditioner compressor worked, for like.... a day. Now it goes on and off real fast and just wont get cold unless it is already cold out, or raining. Is it the compressor or the clutch pully and bearings?

The SES light is on and telling me the crank sensor is bad... I changed it, cleared the codes, stayed off for like.... 20 minutes, now its back to the same thing.

My right hand hockey puck style bushing in my drivers side lower control arm keeps popping up and out of place making for a loud clunk when the control arm hits its support, why the hell does it do that. haha, i looked at both sides and they look identical, only one keeps commin apart.

My lights on my (prndl) shift area flicker on and off while driving... real annoying at night.

My power steering pully blew up into shrapnel... fixed that, just bad enough to list i think.

I think thats about it... Mainly I need help with where the tranny fluid is comming out of... I'll get it on a lift after work today, but would really like a heads up of what im even lookin for... Since theres about -8% room to work under that hood and even less ability to see.


Thanks in advance.

Brett

[DeXTeR]

Well, I found what I believe is the problem. Whether the line I found going to the cooler in the radiator is the feed or return I dont know, but it is very rusty... And impossible to get to. It seems like it could use a good tightening, but that just isnt gonna happen. So I bought a tranny cooler from advance to mount somewhere else. Thing is, I couldnt put it on since where I was had no flare tool to use on the line after I cut it. So now I have all this shit and I need a lift to get it on. So I'm workin on that... Maybe before work tomorrow I can find somewhere, i dunno. Thats it though.

[rixGAphx]

I don't know why you had such problems accessing the tranny line fitting on the rad.

I replaced my rad a couple years ago, and had no problems.
There *shouldn't* be any major differences between my '96 and your '97.

Perhaps the 'new' rad is actually an incorrect model, with tranny fittings located slightly differently.
In which case, a ham-fisted installer might have cross-threaded the fitting, allowing for the leak that became a torrent.

Good luck on the tranny cooler, on two issues:
* There's no feasible place to locate it in the tiny crowded radiator area.
* A separate 'tranny cooler' cools all year 'round. Your tranny will run excessively cold in January.
The stock 'tranny lines thru the radiator' arrangement actually stabilizes (and even heats) the tranny fluid on cold winter days.

Personnaly, I would look at ways to maintain the original arrangement.

Good luck.
-Rick

[DeXTeR]

I think it will work just fine, it really isn't that sensitive of a procedure... The tranny cooler that is. A lot of vehicles don't include the cooler in the radiator, some will use a seperate cooler located either in front of the AC condenser or the radiator if there is no condensor. This whole alotment of radiators in pure essence all get hot, with the cooler mounted to it as I did, it will "heat" it as much as it would if it were located internally, and cool it a little better most likely due to the fact I mounted it directly in the path of the air from the stock air dam. Installation went very well, and in front of the condensor there is more than ample room to mount even a much larger cooler if need be. Leak is gone... on to the rest of the problems!!!