So my daughter is driving my car and calls me up to tell me that its shifting funny and the coolant level indicator is on. She comes home and I let the car cool down a little and open the coolant top to add coolant and I see this brown stuff that looks like chocolate milk. I knew right there that my radiator is mixing coolant and tranny fluid. I whip out my tranny dip stick, break open the top and I see more chocolate milk that smells like coolant. DAMN! I call my mechanic and drive it to his shop like 25 miles away and I barely made it towards the end. Bottom line is, the car has been there for 2 days. My mechanic installed a new radiator and flushed out the tranny 4 times so far and he said hes gonna let it sit over night and flush it 1 more time in the morning. So far he test drove it and it feels fine. total cost if nothing else needs to get done to it....$1000.00

Man this car is starting to be a nightmare. I hope nothing else gets f**ked up on it.

 

was this a Valeo rad?

 

Actually no it was a Behr

 

!!!!! BEHR! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
They're not supposed to do this!!!!!

 

Lol I actually messed up I was looking at the condenser. It is deff a piece of sh*t valeo!!! I should of saw this coming. The mechanic said I was lucky I caught it in time. I dont know how true that statement is really because the repair bill is $1085.00

 

Hopefully there won't be anything else....however, you really shouldn't have driven 25 miles in that condition..

 

Oh man, that looks terrible.

I'm surprised that there isnt an aftermarket alternative that has just two separate units... Its essentially just two radiators built together, correct?

 

Lol I did too. I called a couple of towing places and they wanted like 250 for a 30 minute ride. I was like hell no, I'll tie a rope on it and pull it with my other car and wont pay that.

 

Valeo : French for crap parts and engineering

Hopefully they don't make parts for Airbus Industrie

 

You should get AAA Premier card. Cost around $120/year. You get a free tow up to, I think, 100 miles. Worth every penny. My BMW had a transmission leak (cracked tranny pan) and the independent BMW shop was about 50 miles away. I called AAA and the truck came over and put it on the flatbed truck. After we arrived at the shop, I signed my name on the paper, the tow driver waved at me "good bye" and left. I never paid anything for that tow. $120/year is pretty cheap. You get three free tows/year, plus you get free maps, DMV paperwork, etc etc.

 

Hey thanks man, Im deff going to look into that!

 

$1K sounds like a lot, but when I think about it, a full flush alone would be at least $400
and 150-300 for the radiator + labor. If you're including the tow in that total,
I'd say you did OK. And in your case, I'm sure there was a lot of time just trying to decrud things.
Yeah, AAA rules.
If you're more than 100 mile away they give you a free hotel room.
And you can get Premier and get towed 200 miles even.
I have "Plus" which is good for 100 miles.
+ lots of discounts.
I've used it twice already this year, once for failed water pump at work,
towed 25 miles, then last week for a flat. Sidewall puncture I might add.
Arrgh. Had to buy a new Michelin Pilot sport.

 

Finally got my baby back. It runs like a dream. It shifts perfectly. There is still a small trace of coolant left but since Im friends with the mechanic he told me to go order like 6 liters of Febi tranny oil and in about a month Ill come to your house and we can flush it a couple of more times. Which is very nice of the guy. He was telling me on the phone that the bill says i was charged for 12 liters worth of flushes but he also did an extra flush when the boss wasnt there, lol

So I mean all in all, I know I did pay a lot for the service but at least I got my baby back and it runs like a champ!

 

Where about in NY does your mechanic work? I have been looking up and down for one and they have all been garbage thus far. Seems like your guy knows his stuff.

 

My guy is in Yonkers. He works in a big shop and everytime a german car comes in for service the boss gives it to him to work on. If you have an older benz theres is a guy in the bronx thats been there for like 40 years. All he works on is benzes.

 

Would you be so kind to share your guys info? Yonkers is only a 15 min drive away from me. I might have to stop by soon to have him look over my C320.

 

Pm sent

 

What a coincidence that similar thing happened to me (shake your hand) this week.

Both my coolant and transmission fluid were more green than yours. But basically I had to change out the same thing including thermostat (I want to be safe).

 

I decided to check my coolant for the first time EVER the other day. I was expecting to see some residue or something but nope. It looks clean as can be, at a good level, no caked layers or anything of the sort. I'm still going to double check the radiator and change it come spring.

 

You probably have the better Behr radiator. If you do then you dont have to worry about it. I have it now, lol