Hi guys, sorry this is a bit long but I think all of it's needed to explain the story..

So I recently had my auto tranny rebuilt, and the mechanic said that because of numerous pieces of metal that occupied the workings of the old one, he could only get the stock tranny cooler flushing at about 85% the rate of what it should be.

So he's threatening that I might need an entire new radiator, to which I said, "No way, I can't even pay you for a new radiator, this tranny rebuild is wiping me out". He phones the next day to say he now thinks I'll be ok with what's there now. A day after the rebuilt I took a look for leaks etc, and there was a small leak, which has turned out to be the "front seal". It can be fixed under warranty, but he's implying that the lack of flow through the cooler caused it.

Now I still know very little about cars, but I am an engineer. My point of view says that there's no way a seal should pop out at less than 3500 RPM because of a ~20% pressure increase across my stock cooler. I'd been really careful not to stretch the tranny in any way. The same logic is also telling me that if I fired it up to 6000 RPM (about 70% higher than it was) then surely a tranny fluid pump would be working 70% harder, creating 70% more pressure, yadda yadda..
As well as this, the seal on the old tranny was fine, and god knows how much sh** was floating around in there.

What I want to know is, am I reasonable in telling him he did a crappy job with my seal and just to replace it?

Sorry, this turned into a marathon but a simple yes, or a few words why I'm wrong is all I need. Thanks.

 

Anyone? Maybe this is JAIMECBR900's department?

 

Just let him change the seal. Don't do the radiator, something doesn't sound right here. If your tranny pump wasn't able to pump the correct amount of fluid, you would feel strange shifts. If your shifts are OK, then I think he was giving you a line of B.S.

Get the leak fixed and drive the car normally. He probably reused an o-ring on a cooling line. No big deal.