Mechanical Miracles

dylancox · 13-12-2010, 02:11 PM

Hi all, have any of you experienced things out of the blue when working with cars? 3 years ago, had the dreaded BA Radiator fail, pushing water through the transmission and trans fluid into the coolant bottle. The top radiator hose split at the same time. Was in a hurry to somewhere, Ford was 3km away and I thought screw paying $350 for a towie who would take at least 45 minutes, so limped the poor bugger for 3km (with me praying and sweating the whole way) with steam pouring out the bonnet and transmission slipping like no tomorrow. She made it into the service centre driveway, just as the temperature gauge hit maximum and a red light came on. Got the radiator replaced, transmission flushed and to the service manager's disbelief she started up nicely, took off like a champ and has been trouble free for over 3 years and 70,000km. The service manager assured me that the transmission had maximum 3 months left to live and the car would definitely be back for a new transmission... he was wrong

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XR6_661 · 13-12-2010, 02:17 PM

I'd put that in the 'you lucky gun' basket and not mechanical miracle

pottery beige · 13-12-2010, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR6_661

I'd put that in the 'you lucky gun' basket and not mechanical miracle

and one to watch out for in the salesyard.......

Fev · 13-12-2010, 02:29 PM

I'd consider that a miracle too lol. When my BA had its tranny recoed after that same problem about 30,000kms later it blew. Was a costly problem too at the time.

**Silver Ghia** · 13-12-2010, 07:56 PM

I can see why the tranny and engine was OK. The BA engines are designed to shut down gradually to save the head and gasket when the coolant drops. In addition, the transmission fluid pressure is higher than the coolant pressure, especially with the hose gone, so the fact that you kept going and didnt stop and restart, kept the coolant out of the tranny which helped save it. But I suppose there was still a certain amount of luck there.