Where can I buy new lines for my car? They’re the lines that go from the transmission to the cooling system. My uncle tried to use regular, rubber hose and its just leaking fluid everywhere and the engine revs and won’t kick into gear. A mechanic at my school said I could use silicon hose?
Did he use fuel line hose?
Tester
If the steel lines are rotted out or the rubber is cracked or torn, you may want to see what the dealer price for replacements are before cobbling together something that is not reliable and will trash that expensive transmission.
Regular fuel or emissions hosing WILL NOT WORK!!! Fluid pressure and heat in the transmission lines are high, and regular fuel line is not rated for such high pressure and heat. Emissions line is rated even worse. I would even avoid fuel injection hoses because they are not designed for the heat.
That’s why the engineers use steel lines. Where they have to flex, they use a special rubber line that is rated for the pressure and heat. There is rubber hose available by asking for hose used with transmission cooler installations. These rubber hoses are rated for the high pressure and heat that the transmission fluid will subject it to. If factory replacements are not available, some steel brake line and this special trans cooler rubber line can be used to fabricate a sensible replacement.
Kragen has a transmission oil cooler for $30 and it comes with the hose. What if I get that and just replace the hose?
An external cooler will work fine and some part stores (NAPA or O’Reillys here) can make up new lines or repair the originals if you choose to go that route.
The big concern now is this engine revving and won’t kick into gear thing. It doesn’t take many minutes of that to damage or wipe out a transmission.
I’ve called a few dealers and they don’t sell the hoses for my car anymore. Any substitutions?
Go to ANY auto-parts store with a piece of the original hose (probably 5/16) …get as much as you need. Unless it’s something oddball, it will be either 5/16 or 3/8. ANY parts store. It should have SAE J1019 or SAE J1532 on it. The 1019 being the better of the two.