Narrowly Avoided Milkshake

[RomanSchnobrich]

Hey all, I've had a puzzling event take place. I'm a college student, and I'm on year 4 of owning my 2000 SR5. I do very mild wheeling with it, mainly rough forest roads. With that being said, I spend loads of time on this forum and the several active 3rd Gen Facebook pages, so I'm quite familiar with the pink milkshake. On Sunday, I was about to head to the grocery store when my roommate ran out and said to kill the ignition so I immediately did... transmission fluid and coolant were puking out of my transmission send line. I was super confused at first, but quickly figured out it was the notorious millkshake. And damn! I had an external cooler in the box, was just waiting for a free chunk of time to put it in. Anyway, I replaced the radiator, put new transmission and coolant in (flushed the radiator/engine of coolant 3 times), and it's been driving as normal. I went to get it flushed professionally by a shop today, and they checked the transmission fluid and said it'd be a waste of money-- they couldn't see any traces of coolant in my new trans fluid. So what gives? Is my transmission gonna start acting up any day now, or did the line somehow blow out as they mixed?

 

[jgue467]

So guessing it looked just like a strawberry shake? pepto colored in other words?

If the mixing is right at the cooler in or out connection points it wouldn't have enough time to mix really well, so that is another clue, depending. Mixed well or swirly?

Many on here get the shake and drive some distance with it then deal with it, many go with many flushes and quite a few last several thousand more miles, not sure about beyond that as no one really replies after a while.

I would have done the same as you, flushed and then professionally flushed, it is the Best since they use cleaners before the put in fresh fluid, not just pushing out the old, cleaning too. Only time will tell, be nice to her....

 

[phattyduck]

If the fitting broke off the trans, you likely never got any mixing of coolant and trans fluid (say, only outside on the ground did they mix). In that case, you are 'safe'. New Denso radiator along with coolant and trans fluid and you can be on your way...

-Charlie

 

[HiLife]

Kudos to the alertness of your roommate.
He may have saved you a trans.