my transmission return line broke last week replaced that and since then the fluid in the transmission is always a pint and a half low I keep adding it in and it keeps registering low on the dip stick.It almost appears it is adding into the crank case *** the level of oil is watery and reading over full.. I know there is no external leaks.. so what has happened here?
the vehicle is a 96 Chevy Lumina with 188,000 miles the tranny was working fine except the speedo and odometer stopped working after I had an intake gasket put on it a month ago..
they told me that the return line was cracked and put a rubber hose on which cracked in half and I had to replace the upper line on the radiator they said it was the return line? now I need to know what happened did they put the wrong lines in the wrong places or do i have a cooler that went bad ..

please let me know what your opinion is I need a little help with this I don't want to ruin the transmission over something simple or stupid that was let go.. I wont run it but a half mile on test until i know what to replace or repair.. thank you in advance.. Linda

 

i didnt get the radiator today .. went there and got other things and came back to resolve other issues with the lumina..
update on this I got frustrated and descided to just do a trans tuneup on it bought the filter and pulled the tranny fluid.. got 4 quarts what it says should come out when doing a tuneup.. okay after putting it all back together Added the 4 quarts.. plus another and plus another totaling 6 quarts added and I still read 1 and a half pints low????? where earth is it going??
plus just to be certain that tranny fluid was not contaminating the anitfeeze. since the over flow bottle is so dirty ...
I drained a half gallon out of the radiator and emptied the overflow bottle and cleaned that inside and outside now I can see what color the fluid is.. with out taking some out of the jug.. but there is no tanny fluid in the crank case none in the radiator.. where on earth is it going????? it never gets full... just keep adding.. and oh btw the specs say to add 4 maybe 5 quarts after a tuneup.. 7 quarts total after doing a overhaul...
so I added an extra one just to see if it is sucking it in and leaving it a pint and a half low and that appears to be what is happening.. or is this the right dip stick??? should i go for the 7th quart and see if I am still a pint and a half low???


oh there was no debri in the pan very slight metal dust.. looked very healthy for the amount of miles driven.. and the trans shifts fine.. the only thing that upsets me is the bubbling in the overflow not near what it had been before the intake gasket was replaced. but i can see now that i cleaned the jug up .. it is still there..

I asked my mechanic friend if we should just go to the HEAD gasket when we were doing the intake and he said no it didnt need that, no evidence that the head gasket was shot.. oil looks nice.. just a small amount around the oil cap said that the intake being blown out explained that little bit..
now the only thing I can think of is to change the oil and see if it opens up a port for water to drain in.. man do i dred doing an oil change.. but it is the only true way to know if this is really the under lying problem.. agree??? if the oil is dirty enough it could be holding the crack with dirt and oce i change the oil it may open the crack and flood antifreeze into the crank case showing me a problem... It has been known to happen....i was gonna run seafoam through it for a week and then change that next weekend.. but like i said I dred thinking I am opening a can of worms.. maybe I should unload it before i find out??

 

okay so now someone told me the owners manual was wrong tranny requires 7 qts,, so fill it to top and sticks shows properly.. now odo works trip works just need to reseat the speedo cause it only starts to register at 25 mph and up.. so that is fine now.. next thing to figure out is the overheating issue.. that is still unresolved..

lesson learned do not rely on owners manuals to tell you the correct specs.. lies lies lies... tech spec only.. okay so tranny is clean and green...