Flaming Bonnie Update once again
 

Man, The car is done for now. At least im driving it again, but I still have to pin stripe the flames and clear coat them a time or two. Im sorry for not putting any new pics up, but it is snowing like crazy. We are supposed to get like 3 + inches. As soon as the weather breaks ill take the digital cam out and snap a few shots for everyone to see.

STOP TEASING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! You are the man, someone had to flame a Bonneville... It was only time (and evolution).

BUT HES TEASING ME!!! this is punishable by.... by.... make him drive a ricer!

Re: Flaming Bonnie Update once again
 

Okay, show of hands, please: Everybody who read the Subject line above and thought, "Oh, no, another guy who never got the factory recall notice about the trans cooler line blowing apart..."

I thought so! :-)

-- Andy (who is not related to Jordan M...)

I thought that too. It happened to me in May, and I nearly lost the car. Big flames, but I got lucky and got it put out in time.

What recall about the trans cooler line blowing apart????...... :? :?

I don't have the actual factory campaign number in front of me, but it was actually back around 1996 that they had this recall. Basically there are a couple of swaged fittings where the flexible hoses connect to the metal collars of the transmission cooler connections up front. I think the story was that under hard acceleration, it was possible for excess line pressure to blow one of the hoses right out of its connector, which would send trans fluid spraying all over the exhaust manifold, and various Bad Things would happen shortly thereafter. You know: fire, and stuff like that.

The recall involved replacing the swaged connection with a couple of regular hose clamps. My car got the factory recall treatment, and I have one original swaged fitting (I guess that would be the low-pressure return side), one line with two hose clamps on it (one of which turned out to be stripped... sigh...), and a little white sticker on the rad support under the hood saying something like "GM campaign completed..."

Wait a minute, I'll just go downstairs and take another look... (Working from home today has its advantages... :-))

Okay, it says

GM
Campaign
95-C-68
Completed
Do Not Remove

...with the "95" and "68" written in with ballpoint and practically invisible now after 7 years.

I think someone else here asked their dealer about this recall and was told it was too long ago now, but (1) you might be luckier with your dealer, or (2) your car might have had this done already, long time ago...

I will now hit my Submit button and hope that everything I just wrote is not going to get duplicated six times when the system posts it here...

I wasn't aware of the recall myself, so I just bought new lines from the dealer. Took a couple hours to swap them both. Great piece of mind, but I'm still planning on fabricating some sort of deflector to prevent tranny fluid from hitting the exhaust if this ever does happen again.

I lost 8 quarts in about 3 milliseconds, and had flames shooting up off the front side exhaust about 2 feet when I opened the hood. I moved fast enough to prevent any heat or smoke damage. Even my plug wires were ok, but have since been replaced with Taylor's. If this happens to you, MOVE FAST. The dealer told me that at least 50% of the cars that saw this failure are no longer with us :(

I was looking today to see if my car had the recall for the transmission cooler lines completed. I opened the hood and right next to the radiator fill cap I saw four hose clamps. It looked like they were on two flexible pieces to and from the transmission cooler.

Does this sound like the right place for the recall work to be done? Just checking to make sure I don't end up with a fire.

No, the connections are down below, near the bottom of the radiator and trans cooler, and closer to the driver's side than the passenger's side or radiator cap. I think you may have been looking at plumbing for the A/C condensor.

OK, I tried again to find the connections. Under the front of the car, there are two lines that go from underneath the transmission on the drivers side to the middle of the bottom of the radiator. These are flexible between the two points. Each of the two lines has a metal connection on one end and a hose clamp on the other. The hose clamp is on the transmission side on one line and the radiator side on the other.

Are these the connections that can blow apart, and have they been repaired properly? Or do all four ends need hose clamps?

The factory crimp from the flex to the solid line is what blows. I couldn't tell the difference from my old lines to the new by looking at them. It's probably safer to just replace them, unless your dealer can tell by running your VIN if it's been done. Both lines for my car were about $30 from the dealer.

Agreed. There may also be a recall "campaign" completion sticker on the radiator support, although the original recall was in 1995 (I think the number written on the sticker would be 95-C-68) so it may be obliterated by now. The fact that there are hose clamps on one of the lines leads me to think that it's been done, since the problem was the swaged (crimp-on) fittings on the high-pressure line, and the fix was to install hose clamps.

I talked to the dealer today. I gave him the VIN number, and he said there were no recalls on my vehicle, and also that no recall work had ever been done on my vehicle.

I also don't know if there were 2 crimped fittings and 2 hose clamps to start with, or if there were 4 crimped fittings to start with. I also don't have any indication of the recall work being done.

I would have to see the actual recall, because it is possible the problem was resolved after a certain number of vehicles were made (after a certain VIN number). Does anyone have it?

I'm reasonably certain that the hoses were originally swaged or crimped on both ends, like power-steering hoses.

Somewhere deep in my files I have the original letter from Pontiac about it, but that would only be for my car (i.e. my VIN fell within the recall range, so I got a letter, but I'm pretty sure the letter doesn't say anything about anyone else's cars). Nevertheless, I can take a look at it tonight to be sure.

P.S. The system went and stuck a sunglasses smilie in my previous post because I had an 8 and a right parentheses sitting next to each other, but the campaign number you're looking for is 95-C-68.

Hey DeathRat, have you got the transmission cooler lines recall handy?