Radiator Replacement, ATF top up needed?

I noticed when my car is cold the shifting feels fine, but after the car is hot the gear changes feel sketchy.

They seem to take longer to change and it just feels off.
I have a feeling the fluid is old and when it heats up it just can't work properly, causing the transmission to play up.

Hopefully that hasn't damaged it, but if it still shifts good when cold it hopefully is alright, just needs new fluid so it stops acting up when it gets hotter.

Pretty sure the previous owner only repaired things that had to be done, but a bunch of other things were left ignored, ATF fluid was probably not changed in a long time "because the colour of it on a paper towel wiped from the dip stick looks fine".

Changed the radiator today, so far all looks good.

I lost about 120ML of ATF, so i put back in 120ML of fresh ATF (Castrol Transmax Multivehicle). Coolant amount that came out of radiator and bottom hose was just under 4L.

The old ATF was a bit dark so i might get the rest of the old stuff out soon and put in all fresh fluid.

+1 for your posting style.

Precise, accurate, well laid out and perfectly readable, meaning that there is no "guesswork" involved.

I hope others follow your example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leadfoot6

+1 for your posting style.

Precise, accurate, well laid out and perfectly readable, meaning that there is no "guesswork" involved.

I hope others follow your example.

Thanks. This forum gives me answers to my questions about Magnas, so if people like me come searching for info i hope my posts can help them out.

https://imgur.com/cqGhh6T

https://img.techpowerup.org/191219/20191220-070825.jpg

Hope the link works, a quick visual comparison, old radiator appeared to work fine, i just wanted to change before any cracks developed.

Looks good, preventative maintenance is far better than waiting at the side of the road for a tow truck.

When I got MitsFix to do the 380 conversion last year, I had them fit a new genuine radiator as part of the job.

New top & bottom hoses were also fitted.

I was not experiencing any cooling problems at all at 190,000km, but I thought it was sensible to replace it then rather than experience problems later.

My estimate was that about 250,000km was the outer limit for radiators based on what I was seeing here @AMC.

I probably could have waited a while longer, but as I was spending significant money to have a low km 380 engine fitted, I thought it was wise to take some "insurance" to protect the investment.

When I purchased my TL AWD almost 5 years ago, the temperature needle was, once warmed up, always sitting on one needle width below half way under any and all conditions.

I hope it stays that way for a long time to come.

P.S. I had the steering rack and alternator, both without any problems, replaced at the same time with brand new genuine items.

I couldn't see any writing on the old radiator that showed a build date, so i don't know its age, could be the original i really don't know.

One more thing, should the cap be 0.9 BAR or 1.1 BAR pressure rating. The cap on the old one was 0.9 and the new one came with a 1.1 cap.

Both pressures are used, with some confusion.

I had to replace my cap just over 12 months ago:

https://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/sh...=1#post1650457

The 1.1 bar cap works just fine.

I put the 0.9 cap on maybe a year ago, so its not old. It has worked fine in that time.

The new radiator came with a 1.1, but it felt a bit cheap so i decided to put the 0.9 on my new radiator because i feel like its a better quality cap.

So i will stick with the 0.9 i guess. If my 0.9 becomes faulty i got a fresh 1.1 ready to use.